Sakura Gaiden
by littlepocky
Summary: Post 699. Everyone in her age group has more or less paired off, and Sakura is the only one left. That is, until Sasuke returns... Too bad before anyone can play matchmaker, a threat looms over Konoha once more as a new big bad villain needs Sakura for her healing abilities and snatches her right before Sasuke's eyes. Rating may go up for language. [SasuSaku]
1. Homecoming

**Quick summary of where in the Naruto timeline this story takes place:**

 **Chapter 699**

 **The Last** **—t** **wo years after the Fourth Shinobi World War, during winter**

 **Sakura Hiden** **—** **the spring directly following The Last**

 **Konoha Hiden** **—I'm pretty sure this is set in the same year as Sakura Hiden. Naruto and Hinata get married!**

 **This story—the spring after the events of Konoha Hiden (one year after Sakura Hiden). So, altogether, this is set about three and a half-ish years after the war. Sakura recently turned twenty-one.  
**

 **I'm trying to design this to be like a movie, so it will be maybe around four or five chapters.**

 **The beginning excerpt is taken from the end of Sakura Hiden. I don't own Naruto. I credit OrganicDinosaur for the translations of the pieces of Sakura Hiden I use here. Forgive my ignorance on hospital matters; I use Wikipedia for information. Enjoy.**

* * *

 _If I had been the Sakura from before, I would have felt anxious because I would have told myself that everyone's loves were being fulfilled except for mine._

 _But now, I am already different from who I was before._

—I'll see you soon—

 _That "soon" is definitely coming, since I have already made it this far and I continue to believe in him._

 _When Sasuke comes back, I want to talk about all that has happened_ _—no, even more than that._

 _Sasuke-kun, welcome home. I..._

—I'm home, Sakura—

Sakura's eyes fluttered open to the soft rays of a beginning dawn. After staring at the ceiling for a few seconds, she slowly rolled over on her side and glanced at the small clock sitting on her bedside table.

It read 4:33 AM.

She abruptly sat up and shoved her duvet to the side as she swiftly made her way to the bathroom and prepared for the day. She was running slightly late.

Sakura threw on a simple white shirt, light green cardigan, and white capri pants. She took her brush and quickly tugged it through her hair. _It's long_ , she realized. Her pastel hair now tumbled past her shoulders and settled on top of her breasts. She had been too busy this past year to care about maintaining her hair.

After Naruto and Hinata's wedding, Sakura and Ino worked around the clock to establish a strong foundation for the project they initiated nearly two years prior: the Children's Mental Healthcare Clinic. The purpose of the project was to ensure the mental health of children who lived through the Fourth Shinobi World War. Now, the Clinic was considered a normal part of Konoha Hospital. Although Sakura was the one who first proposed the idea, she handed Ino the position as the head of the clinic. After all, Ino knew more about the mind and psyche than she did. Sakura herself had been handed the position of head medic and chief surgeon by Tsunade. Consequently, she had many patients to care for, especially those who suffered from long-term effects of injuries from wartime. This was why she could not be late.

Sakura completed her look by tying the red cloth band of her forehead protector around her head, the metal plate with the familiar leaf insignia resting on top. She would deal with her hair when she found time. She glanced at the clock. 4:56 AM.

Leaving her room, Sakura grabbed an apple from the fruit basket in the kitchen and made her way to the entryway. Shrugging on her black open-toed, heeled sandals, she snatched her keys and left her small apartment. She used the railing to propel herself to the roof, and with a little burst of chakra sped towards the hospital.

Sakura gracefully landed in front of the hospital's main entrance without breaking a sweat. Discarding the apple core in the trash can before the doors, she stepped into the building without any evidence of having been running late.

"Good morning, Haruno-sensei! Punctual as always!" The young woman sitting at the front desk greeted.

Sakura smiled and nodded, "Good morning to you, Yuko-san. Keep up the good work."

She headed up to the eighth floor, where her office was located. Upon arriving at the door with the sleek silver plate with the words _Sakura Haruno, Chief Medic_ scrawled onto it, she unlocked it and stepped in. Immediately, she took her white coat out of the wardrobe. She set her keys down on her desk and put on the coat. She sat down at her desk to review her patients' files. There were over four hundred folders neatly stacked inside of her filing cabinets. As the head medic, Sakura oversaw the treatments of many more patients than any other attending doctor in the hospital. However, the majority were outpatients, and those who remained in the hospital were those who didn't have the means to perform simple, daily tasks. Sakura was currently treating about forty inpatients herself, most of whom were shinobi and kunoichi severely wounded during the war.

Today she was taking the resident medics with her on her rounds. After Kakashi had taken over as Hokage and Sakura as head medic, Tsunade spent most of her time reforming the healthcare and the medical education systems. One result was the opening of a four-year program solely dedicated to teaching and training shinobi and kunoichi to become medical ninjas.

When Sakura was a genin, one typically became a medical ninja by finding someone who was already well-versed in the subject and asking to learn under him or her. It was a very difficult process; many healers would decline and those who were kind enough to teach were often very busy. Tsunade revolutionized this issue by establishing the program and influencing Kakashi to approve it. Only those who possessed discipline and the finest of chakra control were allowed to be even considered to take the entrance examination each year. If passed, Tsunade herself would teach the budding medics. Overall, it was a very selective process and resulted in very few—maybe three or four—trainees every year.

Sakura never would have thought that her master would take in any disciples after Shizune and her. So, she was both surprised and amused when she heard Tsunade, a woman of much sake and little patience, would become a teacher. She also became a little sour; she wouldn't be known as _the_ apprentice of Senju Tsunade anymore. Tsunade, however, had reassured her that she would only be teaching medical ninjutsu. The students would have to train their combat skills on their own. Sakura took a little pride in knowing that there wouldn't be ten more shinobi or kunoichi who could level mountains with one punch running around the village. It were these students who Sakura was taking on her rounds.

They were gathered in front of the entrance of the Intensive Care Unit, pensive. Sakura, with all of her files tucked neatly under her left arm, greeted them with a slightly wicked smile. She would be hard on them.

"Hello, everyone. Let's begin."

* * *

"Sakura-san, wait."

Sakura had just dismissed the residents after her rounds and was on her way back to her office. She stopped and looked over her shoulder. It was one of the residents, Tetsu, if she recalled correctly. He was one of the first students of Tsunade's program. Being twenty-five years of age, he was handsome, tall, and mature, with a nicely structured face. His sandy locks were strewn about his head, which gave him a boyish quality as well. He was also a fine medic, learning techniques very quickly. He wore the standard jounin outfit, sans flak jacket, under a white coat, which he stuffed his hands into.

"Yes?"

Sakura saw his face flush a little. She looked at him expectantly.

"I... May I take you out to dinner sometime? I would love to learn more about you, Sakura-san."

Sakura blinked. She was well aware of the growing attention she was receiving from Konoha's male ninja population. Although it was flattering, it was also quite unsettling. After the war, many kunoichi had been settling into the following peacetime and focusing on romance. As shinobi generally tended to court kunoichi, Konoha's shinobi began to notice that most of the eligible kunoichi were being taken.

Even Sakura's female friends.

Sakura knew of Ino's and Sai's budding relationship since the incident with Kido. She even saw Tenten, the once major tomboy of her peer group, going on various dates here and there. Hell, Naruto and Hinata were _married_.

However, Sakura was a woman of virtue. She was a woman true to herself. So, she turned a blind eye to this attention.

Because she only had one man in her heart.

"Sure, Tetsu-san, we can go for dinner sometime. As friends."

Tetsu downcast his eyes a little, "What if I would like to take you out for dinner as... as more than that?"

Sakura let out a tiny huff, feeling sorry.

"I... I already have... somebody... that I..." she trailed off, averting her eyes and turning slightly red.

"Uchiha Sasuke?"

Sakura's face immediately grew warm at the sound of Sasuke's name.

"W-Why do you say that?"

Tetsu let out a tired sigh of defeat and huffed a laugh. "Come on, everyone in the village knows about your 'undying love' for the Uchiha. I just thought I might have been the one who would be able to change that. You're an admirable woman, Sakura-san. You're intelligent, strong, and kind. You're four years younger than me, yet I don't feel the age difference at all. You're my superior in the healing arts. You're independent. I guess I just hoped I could have a shot, you know? I mean, you've been pining after the guy without any result for _years_. If your feelings are never reciprocated and if the Uchiha never comes back, I thought I could be the one who could be by your side."

Sakura looked down, hair guarding her expression.

"Uchiha Sasuke _will_ come back."

"How can you be so sure?"

Sakura's mind took her back three and a half years.

 _I'll see you soon._

Subconsciously touching the violet diamond seal on her forehead, she declared, "He promised me."

With that, she turned back around and started walking back to her office with her head held high. She stopped and looked back.

"Oh and Tetsu-san," she smiled, "it's Sakura- _sensei_."

She left, leaving a dejected man behind.

It took Sakura a great amount of self-control to keep herself from stomping through the hospital and slamming her office door. Once inside her office, she dropped her files on her desk and sat down in her chair with much force. She buried her face between her arms and lied on top of the wide desk.

 _"I mean, you've been pining after the guy without any result for_ years _. If your feelings are never reciprocated and if the Uchiha never comes back, I thought I could be the one who could be by your side."_

Sakura turned her head so she faced the opened window. She murmured to herself, "He'll be back... if I don't have faith in him, then who the hell will?"

Sakura began seeing change in Sasuke even during the short while he stayed in the village to clear his name immediately following the war. She saw his efforts to open his heart, to try and let people in instead of shutting them out. She started to see expression return to his mismatched eyes, which were hardened like stone after being away from Konoha for so long and suffering more than anyone could ever hope to imagine.

 _I need to see it for myself, how the world works. All these things I've overlooked: I have a feeling I'll be able to see them better now. And if I miss this chance... I don't think there there will be another._

 _It's my road to redemption. You have nothing to do with my sins._

But... when she felt his fingers tap her forehead, she just knew.

 _I'll see you soon._ That he'd be back.

After calming down, Sakura let out a breath and raised her fingers. Her head still lying down on her desk, she brought her fingers forward and lightly tapped her own forehead. She flushed, smiled, and let out a small laugh. That would forever be her most precious memory.

"What are you doing?"

Sakura nearly shrieked as she abruptly jumped out of her chair and chucked the nearest object she could reach at the source of the question.

"N-Naruto?!" She squeaked. Her sunny friend was crouching on the window sill. The mug she threw smacked him in the nose and shattered upon impact.

"AH!" He fell backwards out the window. Swiftly, his prosthetic arm grabbed the ledge and he deftly hauled himself back up.

"SAKURA-CHAN, YOU BROKE ME! I thought I was gonna die, this is the EIGHTH FLOOR!"

Sakura scoffed, "Idiot, your head is so hard the most a fall from the eighth floor would give you is a concussion. Why don't you ever come in through the door like a normal person? Wait, don't answer that question, you're never a normal person." Even so, Sakura went over to the blonde and affectionately placed a glowing green hand over his bleeding nose.

"Sorry for throwing a mug at you, I was surprised," she glanced at his bandaged arm under the long sleeve of his orange sweatshirt, "though, it looks like your arm's been holding up well over all this time!" After Naruto and Hinata had married, they spent almost every waking hour in each other's presence. Along with Kakashi being the Hokage, Sai spending more time with Ino, and Sakura's work at the hospital, she hadn't had the time to enjoy Team Kakashi's company for a while. Especially Naruto's company.

"Yeah! It's great, you and Baa-chan did really well with this arm! But I'm not here for a check-up," Naruto grinned, "since I haven't seen you in like _foooorever_ , wanna go get some Ichiraku's with me? Pretty please?"

The corners of Sakura's lips curled upwards. "Now what's a married man like you asking this fair maiden out for dinner? Hinata will become green," she joked.

Naruto laughed, "Nah, Hinata's out on a reunion with Team Kurenai today. Besides, you know she isn't like that. Since I've been eating her home cooking lately, which is the best don't get me wrong, I've been missing ramen a lot. I've also missed you, so we should go! Please please please please—"

She feigned a sigh, "Oh alright. It's almost my lunch break anyway."

"YAY! You're the best!" Naruto flashed a shining smile and threw a thumbs-up.

"Yeah, yeah. I know."

* * *

"Naruto! I've been thinking you finally had it with my ramen! Which, if you did, I would hunt you down for," Teuchi lit up when Naruto and Sakura slipped under the curtains of the ramen shop.

"Occhan! You wound me! I could NEVER get tired of your ramen! What do you take me for? Have some faith!"

"Haha, you're right! Sorry, it's just been a long time. It's also nice to see you too, Sakura."

"Hello, Teuchi-san. Ayame-san."

"The usual please!" Naruto happily chirped.

"And I would like miso," Sakura politely requested.

"Coming right up!"

As Teuchi and Ayame set to work, Naruto turned to Sakura.

"So... back in your office, you were definitely thinking about Sasuke, weren't you?" He dragged out the last word and rose his eyebrows suggestively. Sakura punched him in the shoulder.

"Ow!"

"I-idiot! I wasn't!"

Naruto rubbed his shoulder and gleefully teased, "Don't lie! I saw what he did to you the day he left to travel!"

"...You were watching?!"

"Maybe~"

Sakura, now very flustered, sputtered.

Teuchi interrupted, "Yes, Sakura, I've been hearing from my male patrons that you're quite the popular ninja around here. But it seems like you won't make yourself... available."

"I..! It's because I have somebody!"

"You mean Saaaasuke?" Naruto wiggled his eyebrows again. Sakura was beginning to regret agreeing to eat lunch with Naruto.

"Occhan, Ayame-neechan, you'll never guess what I saw Sakura-chan doing in her office today!" Naruto sing-songed. Sakura's eyes widened.

"N-Naruto, that's PRIVATE!"

Ayame's eyes slowly widened and she blushed, clearly misinterpreting Naruto's words.

"Oh dear, Sakura-chan, it's completely alright. A fully grown woman who doesn't have a man to fulfill her needs has to have a way to—"

"NO! No, this is a complete misunderstanding! NARUTO, TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THIS!"

"Eh?" Naruto, who was ignorant to Ayame's meaning, tilted his head. "What's so wrong about poking your own forehead?"

"Poking your own forehead?" Ayame frowned and put a thoughtful finger on her chin, "Now what could that mean?"

Sakura's face grew so hot, steam figuratively exploded out from the top of her head in the form of a mushroom cloud.

"Here you go, Naruto's special miso ramen with extra pork, and one miso ramen for Sakura!" Teuchi set down two bowls.

Attempting to forget everything that had just transpired, Sakura ignored the scalding broth and preoccupied herself with stuffing her face to save herself from embarrassment. However, she didn't have to wait long to leave the shop as a sudden beeping sounded from her hip. Snatching the device and looking at the tiny screen, she quickly stood up.

"Sakura-chan, what is that?"

"I have to go, it's an emergency. One of my patients needs me. Thanks for the food!" She ran out and disappeared.

Teuchi looked up from his work boiling noodles. "What a hardworking girl!" He praised.

Naruto blinked, "What just happened?"

A deep voice cut in.

"It is called a pager, Naruto. The medics at the hospital recently have started to use this innovative technology. Why? Because it allows for immediate contact, especially during emergency situations. It is becoming an optimal communication tool for those who work as healers."

"AHH!" Naruto jumped back in surprise. At the end of the counter, a hooded figure sat and calmly ate his ramen. Naruto peered at him for a few seconds.

"... Shino?! Since when were you sitting here?"

Aburame Shino sat still for a moment and then sulked.

"I've been here this whole time. Why are you never able to recognize me immediately?"

"A-ahaha, sorry about that..."

Shino remained in his seat, brooding and muttering to himself about how changing outfits since the last time he saw Naruto shouldn't be a factor into recognition.

Naruto sheepishly laughed. _Gah! It's because you cover your face all the time!_ He quickly turned to Teuchi, "Occhan, seconds please!"

"Naruto, you do realize that you have to pay for both yours and Sakura's right?"

"E-Eeeh?" Naruto quickly brought out his frog wallet from his pocket and counted the coins inside. He blanched. "Come on, I haven't been here in such a looooong time—"

"—Sensei!" A new, childish voice interrupted. Naruto turned around to see a big group of children on the street in front of the shop.

"Sensei?" He questioned. Shino also turned around.

"Ah," Shino said, "how are you enjoying your lunch, kids?"

Naruto could only stare. "Sensei?!" He repeated, this time shocked.

"I have acquired a job at the academy to teach the students there. I am only an associate teacher for now, but Iruka-sensei has been kind to me," Shino explained. Naruto remained speechless.

The children's eyes turned to Naruto.

"Wow! It's _the_ Naruto-niichan! The Hero of the Leaf!"

Naruto took a moment to let the praise sink in. A goofy grin spread over his face.

"I mean, it's not THAT big of a deal..."

"Teach us something cool, Naruto-sama!"

Naruto slammed his chopsticks down and jumped to his feet. "ALRIGHT! This Naruto-niichan here will show you something super duper awesome and amazing! Come on kids, lead the way!"

"Yay! We're so lucky!" The group of children ushered Naruto off in a scurry.

"OI NARUTO! YOU forgot to... pay..." Teuchi sighed. Then he smiled, "I guess it's okay this time."

Meanwhile, Shino twitched in anger at being ignored once again.

* * *

When Sasuke imagined returning to Konoha, he always pictured orange and pink to be the first colors he saw. Naruto's obnoxious jacket and Sakura's hair.

In his dreams, they would be standing right at the main gates, waiting for him with open arms and huge grins on their faces.

So when Sasuke calmly walked through the famous A-N gates during midday, he couldn't help but feel the slightest disappointment when nobody was there to welcome him back. Of course, he was returning unannounced, so he should have expected as much.

The first people he actually saw from the village were neither Naruto nor Sakura. They were the chunin gate guards, Izumo and Kotetsu. One was staring blankly into space, yawning, while the other was outright snoring. Sasuke slowly walked past them. Kotetsu's bored eyes slid onto Sasuke's form, and Sasuke turned his head over his left shoulder, hair swaying with the breeze and momentarily uncovering his striking purple, ringed and dotted eye. After a sudden realization, Kotetsu shot up and punched his partner.

"O-oi! Wake up! Isn't that..."

Izumo, disgruntled, opened his eyes. "Huh?" He too, sat up after seeing Sasuke's figure.

"N-No way!"

"Go and report this to Hokage-sama!"

"Right!" Izumo 'poofed' away while Kotetsu continued to stare after Sasuke's retreating back.

"... He really came back..."

Inside the Hokage's office, Hatake Kakashi intensely peered at the stack of documents he held in his hand. More specifically, the open book hidden in front of the papers. To anyone on the opposite side of his desk, he appeared to be doing his work very diligently.

Urgent knocks resounded through his office, coming from the door. Kakashi sighed and hid away his book in the first drawer of his desk.

"Enter."

Kamizuki Izumo tumbled in, frazzled.

"Hokage-sama, _he's_ back!"

In realization, Kakashi's onyx eyes widened by a fraction.

"Understood. You are dismissed." Izumo nodded and with one hand seal, he disappeared with a poof once more. Sure enough, Kakashi sensed a presence at the door and barely caught the small rectangular package thrown at him. He paused to examine the parcel, and then his eyes slid to the man entering the door.

"Sasuke, you're back."

Sasuke looked at the stacks of papers piled up around the office. He smirked.

"You're as busy as ever."

Kakashi let out a sheepish laugh, "Ah, as much as I feel guilty about feeling this way, I really can't wait until Naruto's ready to take over."

He took in the sight of his former student. Sasuke's face remained remarkably impassive, if a bit weary, which was something unchanged from the past. He stood tall with perfect posture. His hair had grown enough that gravity started taking effect and weighed it down to his chin, although it still curled slightly upwards in the back. His bangs hid the left half of his face and ultimately his Rinnegan. His dark grey cloak concealed his limbs, but Kakashi could see that Sasuke wore slightly tattered black pants and black sandals. He couldn't help but think that Sasuke possessed a gloomy sense of fashion.

"So? Are you back to stay for good?"

Sasuke contemplated his next words, carefully saying, "I decided that I finished what I set out to do... for myself."

Kakashi searched Sasuke's visible eye, trying to discern the hidden meaning behind the statement.

Sasuke turned his gaze to the window, taking in the sight of the Konoha before him. It was the same, yet it wasn't. Many new buildings integrated themselves amongst the old to where they haven't existed four years prior, and Sasuke could see even more ongoing construction. However, the people remained the same. Friends laughing, children playing, loves forming and being protected—Sasuke could only see the Will of Fire burn strongly in the villagers themselves. This was what made Konoha, Konoha. This what what he wanted to protect.

Sasuke turned from the window back to Kakashi, "I decided it was time to come back. Although I will never be able to fully atone for what happened by my hands, I feel like I can finally stand in this village again. I feel like I can I finally stand by _their_ sides again."

Kakashi's eyes softened. "But..." Kakashi urged, knowing there was more to be said.

"But when the time comes to leave once more, I will."

Kakashi tilted his head in question.

Sasuke elaborated, "I traveled the world to not only open my eyes to what I couldn't during the time of my betrayal but also to gather as much information as I could about the likes of Kaguya and her origins. I learned many intriguing things, but I haven't been able to explore most of them. If I must leave in order to eradicate the likes of Kaguya for good, I won't hesitate to do it."

 _He's_ _grown_ , Kakashi thought. He then chuckled. "I know at least two brats who would protest that idea—"

"AND ONE OF THEM IS RIGHT HERE DATTEBAYO!" An orange blur burst right through the door, and a fist flew directly toward Sasuke's face. Sasuke nonchalantly caught the punch, closing his eyes before the corner of his lips slightly turned upward.

"You haven't changed a bit... Naruto."

"HERE I AM SHOWING THE CUTE ACADEMY KIDS MY SUPER COOL SENNIN MODE AND THEN ALL OF A SUDDEN I SENSE YOUR CHAKRA, YOU BASTARD! HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN BACK?!"

"Naruto! Calm down, he got back not even an hour ago." Kakashi rested his chin on the palm of his hand, his elbow holding his head up. He let out an annoyed sigh.

"OF COURSE HE GOT BACK NOT EVEN AN HOU—oh. Oh."

Sasuke was unimpressed. "Loser, if I had been here for long do you think I wouldn't have contacted you and just lived my life back in this village without your knowledge?"

Naruto scratched the back of his head. "Uh, heheh, sorry, it's just that your chakra being inside the village really threw me off after you've been gone for nearly three and a half years."

He looked over Sasuke up and down. He could feel excitement bubble inside of him and couldn't contain it any longer. He held out a bandaged fist.

"It's really good to have you home."

Sasuke's expression softened and his sole fist slowly came up to meet Naruto's.

"It's good to be back."

Kakashi clapped his hands together and said, "Alright kiddos! Reunion's over! Naruto, I am giving you an impromptu mission. Help Sasuke get settled back in." Naruto grinned.

"You got it! Bastard, you and I are going to have a hell of a time. You have to tell me everything you did while you were traveling! And there better be some damn good stories or else I'm holding it against you for missing my freaking WEDDING."

Sasuke couldn't help but tune out Naruto's incessant chatter and look around for the other person who should have come with Naruto. Naruto definitely wouldn't have just barged in there without informing _her_ of his presence back in the village. But she was nowhere to be found.

"Where's... Sakura..?" He asked in a quiet voice, his voice gradually wavering with embarrassment. Naruto paused, processed what Sasuke just asked, and then slyly grinned. He shoved his ear in front of Sasuke's face, cupping it with his left hand.

"Whaaaaaat? I couldn't quite catch that."

Sasuke coughed once into his only hand. "Where's... Sakura?" He asked once more, still very quiet. Naruto's grin stretched even wider.

"Sorry Sasuke, still can't hear you, I must be going deaf or something! If you ask one more time I'm sure I can help you out with whatever you need."

Sasuke gritted his teeth, annoyed and ready to pummel Naruto's head into the earth and _make_ him deaf. "I'm asking where Sakura is, idiot!" He snapped, ears tinged red. Kakashi looked at the duo in great amusement.

Naruto laughed really loudly, "She's at the hospital right now!" Then he slightly frowned and put a thoughtful finger on his chin, "Something about an emergency—"

And at those words, Sasuke's eyes widened in alarm and he immediately vanished.

"—about one of her patients. Wait hey! Where'd you go? Don't leave me behind, bastard!" And Naruto too disappeared out of the office.

Kakashi chuckled at his former students and turned to matters back at his desk, where the small package that Sasuke threw to him earlier sat. The package was looking at Kakashi expectantly, as if telling him to hurry up and open it.

"Huh, I forgot to ask him what this was." Unwrapping the standard brown paper, a video cassette fell into his hands. It was a black rectangular prism with the tape rewound to play at the beginning when put into the VCR of a television. Along with it, a notecard fell onto his desk. It read:

 _A souvenir._

Kakashi looked at the label on the video tape and then his face lit up with joy.

 _Icha Icha Pooltime_ was finally adapted into a movie!

* * *

Sasuke sped along the roofs of the village, heading toward the general direction of the hospital if he remembered correctly from three and a half years ago. Concern spread across his visage, eyebrows narrowing together. Just how bad was Sakura hurt that Naruto couldn't even tell her he came back?

"SASUKE! WAIT A MINUTE DAMNIT!" Naruto chased after him. Sasuke paid him no heed and continued even faster toward his destination. He was one of the fastest shinobi alive, after all. Once arriving at the building with the kanji for "healing" printed on top of its main doors, he all but flew into the front lobby and nearly frightened the desk clerk out of her wits.

"Where is Haruno Sakura?" He demanded.

"Y-you're...!" She stammered.

"Where is Haruno Sakura?" He repeated, his visible eye dangerously flashing.

"She's in s-surgery, sir." Sasuke's face darkened. Her condition was bad enough to warrant surgery? Why didn't Naruto inform him of this earlier?

"SASUKE YOU BASTARD, I TOLD YOU TO WAIT!" Naruto barreled into the lobby and crashed into Sasuke.

"What the hell, moron?!"

"That's my line! I think you misunderstood something here! Sakura's fine!"

"She _just_ said she's in surgery!"

"Not surgery for her, dumbass! One of her patients! Did it go over your head that she's a _fucking doctor_?!"

Sasuke paused. _Of course._ Sakura was the most proficient healers Sasuke knew. Of course she wasn't the one undergoing surgery. Of course she was the one performing it instead. Suddenly, he was seventeen again, battling alongside Naruto while she healed every single member of the Allies through her slug. He remembered watching her heal his obliterated left arm simultaneously alongside Naruto's right so they both wouldn't bleed to death after their final battle. He remembered how he let her talk his ears off when she excitedly explained to him in great detail what she was researching with Hashirama's cells, assisting Tsunade in her endeavor to create prosthetic arms. He remembered how smart she was, soaking up knowledge like a super sponge and applying that information to new situations. And he also remembered how young she was, being only twenty-one years in age just like him. Sakura really was amazing.

Sasuke suddenly felt very silly. Not only was he embarrassed for his uncharacteristic outburst, but he had shown no faith in Sakura's abilities. He automatically assumed that she had somehow been victimized. He stood up, eyes downcast and hidden behind the shadow of his bangs. Dusting himself off lightly, he swiftly turned and stalked out of the hospital. The spectators in the lobby looked after him in confusion.

Naruto, of course, followed him.

"What is _up_ with you?" Naruto squinted, trying his best to analyze his best friend. They were back on the bustling streets, heading toward Sasuke's apartment. After the war, he had spent most of his time detained in a holding cell but had procured a new house to stay in for a short time after being released.

"...Nothing." Sasuke gritted out.

"Come on, I've never seen that kind of expression on your face before. Something's gotta be up."

"Haven't you ever heard of concern for a teammate, idiot?"

"HAH, that was more than just 'concern,' Sasuke! You were straight up out for blood!"

Sasuke's greatest fear was losing another person close to him. After the war ended, he finally decided to try and let people into his life, and his heart started to mend. Bonds were really what held people together, he realized, and it didn't take him long to understand that losing either Naruto or Sakura would devastate him. So when he registered the words "hospital" and "emergency" in his mind, all rational thoughts flew out of his head and he immediately assumed his greatest fear would become reality.

"Besides," Naruto continued, "I don't think you'd be on the verge of psychopathic rage if _I_ had landed myself in the hospital. You'd probably just call me a moron for getting injured and leave."

Sasuke just scoffed, not wanting to entertain Naruto with his true thoughts.

"You are a moron," he retorted, "and if there was a way you'd die, it'd be from your idiocy and not from battle."

"Yeah, whatever," Naruto dismissed with a wave of his hand, clearly used to Sasuke's insults. He then crossed his arms, and closed his eyes thoughtfully with a foxy frown, "But I can't help but feel like there's more to what I can see..."

Sasuke remained impassive and just continued to walk.

Truth be told, Sasuke thought he'd been close to losing Sakura the previous year, when he learned that she had been kidnapped by someone called "Kido." The bastard was trying to get Sasuke's attention by using his hairs left from the Valley of the End to impersonate his chakra and trying to find a way to artificially create the Sharingan. Sasuke ignored him. When he learned that Sakura was being held hostage in order to lure him out, he halted his journey to return to Konoha and murder the freak. However, Sakura had already taken care of matters like the capable woman she was. It was then that Sasuke realized that she wasn't the weak twelve-year-old girl from his memories. It was also then that Sasuke felt immense pride for his female teammate. Of course, that didn't stop him from finishing off the remaining enemies. He was sure Sakura was unaware of his involvement with the incident, and he intended to keep it that way.

Throughout his travels, Sasuke had a lot of time to think about where he stood with his female teammate. Before he left and when she asked if she could join him on his journey, he denied her proposal because it was something he had to do for himself. Instead, he tried showing her that he accepted her feelings by doing to her what he thought was the most loving act from his memories.

What Itachi did to him to show that he loved him.

But while he was traveling the world, he couldn't help but think that Sakura completely missed the confession underneath the act. Sasuke absolutely hated wearing his emotions on his face—something characteristic of Sakura. It took an immense amount of embarrassment and setting aside pride to just to tap her forehead. So how in the world was he supposed to tell her, _show_ her, that he was starting to reciprocate her feelings? That even though he would never be worthy of her love, he wanted to be selfish and let himself indulge in it? That he was willing to try, after spending all this time hurting her?

"Helloooooooo, earth to Sasuke," Naruto waved his hand in front of Sasuke's face.

"What?"

"I said, what are you going to do about it?"

Sasuke had completely ignored Naruto's talking and was unsure of what he was talking about. "What am I going to do about what?"

Naruto sighed, as if repeating himself was a tiring task. "About all of those manwhores after Sakura-chan's innocence!"

"What did you just say?" Sasuke stopped walking and asked, narrowing his eyes. Manwhores? He felt anger churn inside of his chest. He also suddenly came to a realization. What if Sakura had moved on? He had been gone for almost four years, after all.

"I said that Sakura's FLOWER is at stake here! IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!" Naruto flailed his arms.

Sasuke frowned. Now this was a problem.

Naruto continued, "Just because she's like the only kunoichi of marriageable age without a boyfriend, it's like ALL THE SINGLE SHINOBI THINK THEY'RE ENTITLED TO HER OR SOMETHING! IT'S TERRIFYING AND REPULSIVE AND I FEAR FOR HER SASUKE! DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!"

Sasuke's fist tightened at his side. "What have you been doing this entire time, dobe?"

"Uhhh excuse me, if you haven't been living under a rock, you'd know that I'm _married_. I can't spend all my time chasing off bastards after Sakura-chan's Springtime of Youth when I have my own wife I need to spend time with! Sakura-chan's been good at fending off those rabid dogs by herself, but you never know when one will get past her defenses and seduce her like a snake!"

Ignoring the snake insult as he was a snake user himself, relief flooded into Sasuke's system. Sakura hadn't been seeing another man.

"Although, I do feel kind of bad for her. She's been alone this whole time, watching all her friends fall in love..." Then, Naruto's face looked as if it came to a great conclusion, "Hey, this is all YOUR fault, you bastard! How are you going to make it up to her?!" Naruto demanded.

 _Make it up to her?_ Sasuke thought. And then he realized that Naruto was right. Maybe he had taken her willingness to wait for granted. Maybe she had suffered while he was away from Konoha. He needed to find a way to thank her.

They reached Sasuke's apartment. He unlocked the door and Naruto strutted inside, kicked off his shoes, and threw himself on Sasuke's couch, acting as if it was his home instead of Sasuke's.

"Maaan I'm beat." He then sneezed, the dust that accumulated on the couch over years of no use tickling his nose.

Sasuke tugged off his own shoes and neatly placed them in the corner of the entryway. He set his pack down against the wall and went over to the large window-wall and opened the curtains. The afternoon light shined brightly through and Sasuke could see the great Hokage Mountain. He unclasped his cloak and chucked it at Naruto, who was falling asleep. It hit him square in the face and a muffled shout came from under. Ignoring him, Sasuke then walked to the kitchen and put a kettle of water on the stove. Sitting down at his kitchen table, he wondered when he would be able to finally see Sakura.

But first, looking around his dust-layered living quarters, he decided that he needed to do some housework.

* * *

If there was one thing Sakura hated, it was performing impromptu surgeries without any preparation. Especially long ones.

One of her patients, who suffered from brain trauma after clashing with the Ten-Tails fission forms, turned out to have a subdural hematoma. Blood gathered in the membrane of his brain and spinal cord and tore veins, resulting in high intracranial pressure. But chronic subdural bleeding develops over days, even weeks, and in slow progression so Sakura couldn't believe her patient had bled so rapidly over the course of a single day. She couldn't help but feel something was off about this situation.

When she arrived at the scene after her pager notified her of an emergency, she ordered her nurses to prepare an operating room immediately. Scrubbing in, it took Sakura and her assistant surgical residents seven hours to find the blood clot.

Yet she still managed to save her patient's life, and Sakura couldn't be more relieved.

She fell back into her swiveling desk chair, exhausted. Concentrating chakra for seven hours was both a physically and mentally taxing thing to do. Glancing at the clock, she realized it was already evening. She decided to take her work back home with her, so she gathered her patients' files. She took off her white coat, turned off the lights, and locked the door behind her.

When Sakura made her way down to the lobby, the desk clerk called out to her.

"Ah, Haruno-sensei! Well done, I heard the surgery was a success!"

Sakura wearily smiled and yawned, "Yes, Yuko-san, it was. But I could have definitely done better. I should have been able to catch it before Tanaka-san needed an emergency surgery..."

"Oh, that is nonsense! Now you just go home and rest up. You must be happy, now that you have someone to go back home to!" Yuko winked.

Sakura blinked. "Excuse me?"

Yuko laughed and said in a teasing voice, "Come on, now that Uchiha-san is back, how could you resist his charms? Especially after what he did today!"

Sakura froze, jaw opening, and her heart stopping for a few seconds. Then it crashed against her chest, thumping. Hard. _He's... he's back?!_ "... What exactly did he do?"

Yuko also paused, covering her mouth like she said something she shouldn't have. "You mean... you don't know?" She asked with a meep.

"What exactly did he do?" Sakura repeated.

"He... he barged in here and asked where you were, because he mistakenly thought you were hurt. If you ask me, I'd say he was really worried about you, Sensei."

Sakura's eyes widened. Sasuke? Asking after her well-being? That couldn't be true!

All thoughts of work flew out of her mind as she turned on her heels and sped through the exit into the spring evening. She remembered the way to Sasuke's apartment from before he left. She ran with all her might, barely even breathing because she was solely focused on finally being able to meet him again. To see him again. To be with him again.

When Sakura found herself in front of his door and urgently raised her hand to knock, she realized that all of the lights were turned off through the windows. Breathing heavily, she slowly put down her hand, realizing he wasn't inside. Feeling glum, she whirled around, ready to turn the village inside out in order to find Sasuke.

But she didn't need to because she turned around right into Sasuke's chest.

"Oomph!" Her files fluttered up into the air, paper raining down on them, around them, in between them. Like snow. Like confetti.

Her shocked gaze traveled from his chest up to his face, and Sakura instantly felt the outer corners of her eyes sting as wet droplets formed. _Don't cry! You're supposed to be strong!_ She told herself.

Sasuke looked down at her, unflinchingly staring straight into her eyes. When he saw those tears, his face visibly slackened and grew soft.

"You've changed, yet you remain the same," Sasuke softly said, more to himself than to Sakura.

A million thoughts whizzed through Sakura's head. She just had so many things to tell him. Where was she supposed to start?

"Sa..Sasuke-kun, welcome home. I..."

Yes, Sasuke was _finally_ home. _Sakura_ was his home.

He cut her off, "I'm home, Sakura."

And she broke into the widest smile she'd smiled in over three years as she let the tear slide down her face.

* * *

 **A/N: And that concludes the first chapter of five! Did you like what I did there at the end? Throwback to Sakura Hiden :D This chapter focused more on background. The next will have a lot of Sasuke/Sakura scenes (maybe even a... "date"?!).**


	2. Date

**Chapter Two is here. I really wanted to get this done by today (November 10th) because today is the day the Naruto manga officially ended one year ago! Happy one year anniversary present!**

 **I can't believe Sakura Gaiden has been well received! Thanks for giving my story a chance!**

 **I don't own Naruto.**

* * *

Somewhere in a bleak and dark room, a figure sat on the stone floor and leaned against the hard wall. The only light sources were from tiny, intermittent green glows emanating from firefly-like insects leisurely floating around and a shining crystal ball sitting on a stone table in the middle of the dreary cave-like space.

A sporadic glow from one of the lightning bugs revealed a man clutching his head. He abruptly hacked into his hand, loosely curled platinum locks flying wildly as he did so. Drawing his hand open, his clear purple eyes stared at the blood pooled onto his palm. Blood had also splattered onto his simple off-white poet shirt and black pants. He breathed heavily and raggedly, sweat dripping down the sides of his pale face. The man stumbled to his pale bare feet and staggered to the crystal ball.

The surface of the delicate ball reflected a pink-haired woman who wore the most beautiful smile he had ever seen. A lone teardrop escaped one of her sparkling emeralds, and it looked as though she let out a happy sob. He wished she would smile like that for him.

She would soon, for he had chosen her to be his healer and life partner.

He had scoured across the dimensions, trying to find a way to cure his sickness. He _finally_ came across someone who he knew would be able to treat his affliction during his visit to a parallel Universe, on the planet called Earth. He had gone from village to village, stopping at their institutions of healing. All had either denied that he even had an illness or deemed themselves incapable of treating the unknown ailment. He also posed as a sick traveler who collapsed on the road. Not many people stopped to help, and those who did were incompetent in treating his unknown disease. However, this woman suddenly halted her own business and was the only person willing to sacrifice her time to help him into shelter and look into his source of pain.

The woman introduced herself as Sakura. She had been on her way back to her village from completing something called a "mission." She stayed with him for over a week, toiling through long hours analyzing his condition and taking samples. Not long after, she managed to concoct a small amount of fluid medicine to help him feel less of the effects of his symptoms, of which she put in several vials. Although she couldn't pinpoint what exactly was causing his sickness, she had gotten farther in healing him than anyone else he ever met. When she started noticing anomalies in his cells, which were slightly different from those of a regular earthling's, he forced himself to leave before his cover was blown. He needed to gather himself and plan for the future. He also took the remaining medicine with him.

Now, he was down to the last vial. But he had a plan.

Sakura would heal him, and when he became strong enough to consume the ripening fruit of his planet's Shinju, both he and Sakura would eat the fruit. They would purge that wretched Earth of all its sinful people and start a new world together as its omnipotent father and mother.

The perfect world.

The scene in the crystal ball shifted, and the man caught a glimpse of a male. He was a tall, lean, broad-shouldered human who possessed a dark and regal character. His raven locks covered his left eye, and his visible black zircon eye released tension as he witnessed Sakura's tears.

Why was Sakura smiling like this for another man?

In rage, the man swiped at all the medical materials scattered about the table. Glass tubes shattered and other items clattered to the floor. Papers darted about, disturbed. Clutching the last vial of medicine, he swiftly drank its contents in one shot and threw the vial to the ground. The glass fractured.

Waiting for a few minutes, he felt his power momentarily surge, as the effects of his disease were numbing back down. He chuckled a sinister sound, which subsequently evolved into complete malicious laughter.

It was about time he paid Sakura a visit.

* * *

"Enter," Sasuke commanded, after Sakura had wiped way her tears. He walked past Sakura and unlocked his door, disappearing into the dark and leaving it open for Sakura to follow.

Sakura blinked. "U-um, right."

She hurriedly gathered up the loose papers scattered about the ground into her arms, not particularly caring to reorganize them into the correct folders. Then she trailed in after him, closing his front door and carefully placing her shoes next to his. Light poured out into the hallway from his kitchen. She fully entered into the apartment and made her way to the light, not noticing the other pair of black ninja sandals kicked into the dark corner of the entryway.

"Sit." Sasuke nodded to the kitchen table. Sakura looked at him in confusion, but sat down in one of the chairs regardless and set down her documents. He poured them both tea in traditional yunomi tea cups, and he himself sat down in a chair across from her. His only arm rested on the table.

Sasuke observed her.

He noticed the way Sakura nervously tucked her hair behind her right ear. Her eyes were flitting around his apartment, although she couldn't see much because only the kitchen lights were on. She was clearly flustered by his scrutinization, so she settled her gaze onto the steam rising from her cup.

Sasuke saw the physical differences from the seventeen-year-old girl and the twenty-one-year-old woman who sat before him. She was slightly taller and slimmer. She lost the little remaining baby fat on her face. Her eyes reflected experience, maturity, and wisdom, shining brighter than ever before.

"You did surgery today?" He asked. Sakura jumped at the sudden question.

"Y-yeah. One of my patients had a complicated sort of blood clot in his brain. It took forever to find and ended up becoming a seven-hour surgery. I was getting ready to go home with my work after, but then I found out you came back, and that's why I'm late in coming to meet you, and I'm _so_ sorry for that, I rushed here to find you as fast as I could—"

" _Sakura_ ," Sasuke interrupted, closing his eye. Sakura could hear the slight exasperation in his voice at her rambling.

Predicting what he was going to say next, she hastily apologized, "Sorry, I was being annoying." She averted her eyes in embarrassment and clutched her pants at her lap.

The corner of Sasuke's lip infinitesimally twitched upward. Instead, he said, "You did well."

Sakura immediately flushed and she searched his eye in question.

A small smile found its way onto her face with her sparkling eyes crinkling, head tilting and hair swaying.

At his words, she found the courage to speak.

"Sasuke-kun, so many things happened while you were gone. I don't even know where to start! Not to mention, I'd like to hear about your journey too. Well, first, Hanabi—you know, Hinata's sister—somehow got kidnapped, and then Hinata managed to get herself kidnapped by the same evil guy while we were on a mission to retrieve Hanabi, so Naruto, Sai, Shikamaru, and I all traveled to _the_ _moon_ and were somehow able to save the moon from falling down on Earth. That was a year and a half ago, and not long after that, I proposed the idea of a mental healthcare clinic for the children of the war and it passed! Then, you know how your hair samples were being used to imitate your chakra? Some nasty person wanted to—"

"I know," Sasuke stated. Sakura halted her nonsensical talking. She sheepishly laughed and lightly scratched the back of her head in gesture.

She got up from her chair and slowly made her way to Sasuke, stopping in front of him. "I... I missed you," she shyly proclaimed, but boldly looked down into his eye. She bit her lower lip.

"... Ah."

"Did you... um, miss _me_?"

Sasuke held her hopeful gaze for a few seconds, contemplating on what to say.

Just as he opened his mouth to speak, a loud yawn cut through the air from the living room. The moonlight from the window-wall revealed a spiky-haired figure stretching his arms as far as he could reach.

"Man, that was a good nap! Wait, it's already dark? Crap! I gotta get home! Hinata's probably so worried!"

Sakura let out a surprised noise and jumped away from Sasuke in alarm. Sasuke's eye twitched in annoyance.

"Naruto! You were here this whole time?" Sakura asked, shocked.

"Sakura-chan! You're finally here! Just how bad was your surgery that it took _this_ long? Forget that, did you know that SASUKE'S BACK?"

"We're inside of his apartment, Naruto. Of course I know he's back!"

"Idiot..." Sasuke seethed.

Naruto looked back and forth between the pair. Realization dawned on him and he grinned, "Oh, was I interrupting something?"

"N-not at all!" Sakura declared a little too quickly.

Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose. "If you're going to leave, _get out now_ ," he angrily directed at Naruto.

"Yeah yeah, alright," Naruto waved off, and he headed to the front door.

As he was shrugging on his sandals, he said conversationally, "You know bastard, the Spring Festival is happening this coming week."

Sasuke gave him a pointed look that indicated _what of it?_

Naruto continued, "I'm just saying that you should enjoy this kind of thing at least _once_ in your life. It's also Sakura-chan's favorite festival, and I can name at least twelve people dying to be her date. You never know, she might accept one of their requests! And didn't you say you were going to thank her?" He winked while tapping each feet into his sandals as if to secure the shoes on.

"Naruto, stop talking as if I'm not here," Sakura snapped. Nonetheless, her cheeks heated. What did he mean by thanking her? She also secretly wanted to know if Sasuke would ask to accompany her, as Naruto was suggesting him to do.

" _Leave_."

"Just food for thought~" Naruto sang and merrily swung himself out the door and into the night.

Sasuke and Sakura stood, staring at the slightly swaying open door.

"Tch, he could have at least closed it," Sasuke resigned with a sigh. When he turned to Sakura, she was nervously playing with the ends of her hair.

"Naruto's an idiot, you're not really the kind of person who would attend childish things like festivals. I... I better leave as well, it's getting late." She briskly gathered her messy pile of papers and tapped them on the table to even the stack out. She also went to the entrance and tugged on her shoes.

She stood up and looked back. "Good night, Sasuke-kun."

"Sakura."

Sakura stopped as one foot crossed the threshold of the door. She turned back and looked at him.

"Yes?"

"... Monday, the giant oak tree next to the memorial stone. Be ready by five." With that, Sasuke swiftly turned around and retreated into his dark apartment bedroom, closing the door behind him.

Sakura blinked a few times, and closed the door. Once outside, she brought her hands to her warm cheeks and let out a strangled excited noise while she hopped up and down several times.

"I need to go see Ino!" She suddenly exclaimed and skipped all the way to her best friend's house.

* * *

The night was peaceful and the streets were empty. The spring evening saw crickets chirping about, and the stars twinkled brightly in the clear sky alongside the moon.

However, at the Yamanaka household, a storm was brewing.

"SASUKE-KUN ASKED YOU OUT ON A _DATE_?!" Shrieked a beautiful blonde woman.

"PIG, SHUT UP! YOU'RE TOO LOUD!" Sakura screamed back.

"FOREHEAD, _YOU_ SHUT UP! YOU'RE BEING LOUD TOO!"

"Ladies! Please quiet down! The whole compound can hear you!" Ino's mother called from below.

"Sorry!" Both Sakura and Ino called back.

They were sitting in Ino's bedroom upstairs, much like they'd frequently done as children. Except that this bedroom was rebuilt after Pain's attack, just like every building in Konoha was. Ino sat at her vanity, long hair tied up into a thick bun with a green mud mask on her face. She had been filing her nails when Sakura relayed her shocking news.

"Ino, it's probably not a date to him! It's just two friends attending a festival together, because that's what friends do. Yeah." Sakura reassured more to herself than to her friend. She was lying on Ino's bed, repeatedly throwing her pillow up in the air.

Ino scoffed. "Sakura, _couples_ attend festivals together. Like me and Sai. That's what lovey-dovey couples do."

"This is not 'lovey-dovey'!"

"Sure it is; it's as lovey-dovey as Sasuke-kun's ever gonna get. I bet he'll ask you to make babies with him in the same tone of voice! I can imagine it now: 'Sakura. Help me rebuild my clan.'" Ino's voice deepened about five times its normal pitch as she tried mimicking Sasuke's way of speaking.

Embarrassed, Sakura buried her face in Ino's pillow and muffled a scream.

"Hey! Stop spitting into my pillow! I need to sleep on that you know!"

Ignoring her, Sakura groaned. "Ino... what do I _do_?"

She could see the glint in Ino's baby blue eyes as she announced, "Girl, you came to _me_ for help, and help is what I'm gonna give! You said Monday, right? Perfect! That gives us one day! Since tomorrow's our day off, meet me in the morning at the flower shop at ten sharp."

Sakura gulped, uneasy at Ino's devious tone. "... Why?"

Ino threw her head back and laughed maniacally.

"To prepare for battle!"

The next morning, Sakura woke up and got ready. She wore a simple light blue cotton sundress that ended just above her knees and forewent the forehead protector, as she was not on active duty. She put on her small over-the-shoulder pale yellow purse and quickly brushed her hair.

Setting her brush down and putting on heeled wedge sandals that matched the color of her purse, Sakura made sure she had her keys and wallet and left her apartment.

The village was bustling with activity in preparation for the festivities. As she walked through the streets in broad daylight, families and friends were out trying to figure out how to build or set up their booths, laying out supplies or drawing out ideas. Playing children ran around, knocking various items over and getting yelled at.

Strolling down the street, many people stopped to greet her or compliment her. She always waved back with a smile.

Arriving at the Yamanakas' flower shop, Sakura entered and the chime on the door rang. Ino greeted her.

"Hey Sakura! Hold up, let me just finish my shift here."

As Sakura waited for Ino, she looked around the shop. Her eyes settled on beautiful white flowers.

"Wow," she breathed.

One of Ino's family members emerged from the room behind the counter, and Ino ushered him to take over the register. She bounded over to Sakura.

"Got good eyes there, Forehead. Those are white gardenias!"

"They're beautiful... the way the petals twist like that is just amazing!"

 _White gardenias mean... oh. Ooooh. Oh! I have a great idea. Why am I so awesome?_ Ino's mind immediately began forming a plan, which she would execute later by enlisting a few helpers. Whether they wanted to or not. But first, she needed to redirect Sakura's attention from the pretty flowers.

"Yo, Sakura, we should get going!" She got Sakura's interest.

"Oh, okay. What are we doing today?"

Ino's eyes flashed, "My favorite thing in the whole world: s _hopping_."

Sakura blanched. She absolutely loved shopping herself, but Ino's idea of shopping was on a whole different _dimension_.

"O-on second thought, I think I don't feel too well toda—"

"Oh that's nonsense, let's go!" Ino snatched Sakura's hand and dragged her out of the flower shop. Their first stop was a store solely dedicated to selling yukatas.

"We might have to fight in there," Ino observed. The shop was surprisingly busy for the day before the beginning of the festival. Usually, girls (and boys) already had their yukatas picked out by this time. But today, there were many patrons hustling through the racks.

As they entered, Ino immediately began piling yukata after yukata into Sakura's arms. When Sakura herself tried picking out a few, Ino instantly swatted them out of her hands, deeming them unworthy. Sakura still managed to sneak one she thought was acceptable into the pile. Ino nearly had to fight numerous girls over a few.

"Try them on!" She commanded, gesturing to the fitting room. Sakura sighed and carried her large stack to the curtained area. She chose to try on the one she picked out first.

When she opened the curtain, Ino let out a small shriek. Everyone in the store briefly turned to look in their direction.

" _Sakura_! I did _not_ pick that out for you!"

"What? It's a perfectly pragmatic color! I like earth tones!" After all, Sakura possessed earth and water-type chakra.

"... To be honest, you look like a fucking _tree_. No, wait, maybe even worse. A piece of shit with a cherry blossom colored mop sitting on top of—"

"Okay okay. I'll take it off," Sakura grumbled and retreated back inside the curtains.

She tried on one after another, withstanding Ino's criticisms every time.

"Too bright."

"Too dark."

"Ew, purple does _not_ go well with your eyes."

"There's too much pattern on that one!"

"Ugh, that one's too plain."

And so on and so forth. After what seemed like eternity, Ino feared she would never find a suitable yukata for Sakura. She paced back and forth.

"Ino, why are we even here in the first place? I have a perfectly good yukata back at my parents' house," Sakura called out from behind the fitting room.

"Yeah, that you wore for like, six years in a row! It's definitely time to get you a new one."

"Well, let's hope this is good because it's the last one in the pile," Sakura muttered while shoving aside the curtain violently.

Ino stopped in her tracks and her jaw dropped.

 _This was the one_.

Ino squealed, "Sakura! This is it! We're buying this one!"

Sakura skeptically looked at her friend, "Really? But the price is so high..."

"I don't care, we are _so_ getting this!" Ino dragged her friend to the register.

The clerk rang up the yukata and cheerfully said in her best sales voice, "And the total is six hundred and sixteen ryou!"

Sakura gasped. "Ino! I don't have that kind of money on me!"

Ino waved off her friend's distress, "Put it on my credit please!" She handed the clerk a small, rectangular card. As Konoha was undergoing building construction, the village was also in the midst of a technological revolution. One such result of this boom in technology was the credit card, a "pay later" kind of system. Sakura's hospital pager had also been a product of the revolution.

"I-Ino..." Sakura herself did not own a credit card, but she was touched that Ino would do something like this for her.

"Don't sweat it, Forehead. If this will get me closer to seeing a mini Sasuke grumping his way around the village, I'd do it every day until it happens."

Sakura rolled her eyes.

"I promise I will pay you back. Are we done with the shopping?"

Ino grinned, "Now we go for makeup!"

Sakura sighed at her best friend's antics but complied anyway. They visited various civilian makeup stores, and Sakura learned what mascara and eyeliner and all the different types of foundation were. She knew Ino was well-versed in this subject so she just let her work her magic. They had the most difficulty finding a shade of eyebrow pencil that matched Sakura's hair color.

Sakura insisted on paying for the makeup products this time, as all of them combined was less expensive than the yukata. Ino let her.

"Perfect!" Ino all but purred when they made it back to Sakura's apartment, "Okay, since the big day is tomorrow, I'm coming over at three to get you ready. Alright?"

"Whatever you want, Pig." Sakura cracked a smile. Ino turned around and left, humming.

Sakura entered her home and set the numerous shopping bags beside her bed. She sighed and put her hands on her hips, looking around for something to do. There was still time left in the day.

She decided to go for a walk.

* * *

"Yo, bastard! What brings you to my awesome humble abode?" Naruto answered the door to his and Hinata's apartment when Sasuke rang the doorbell in the late afternoon. Sasuke didn't care to point out the oxymoron in Naruto's statement.

"I need... consultation."

"Consultation? On what?"

Sasuke coughed, "About tomorrow."

"What about tomorrow?"

"I'm... accompanying... Sakura to the festival."

Naruto's jaw dropped open, "You took my suggestion? More importantly, YOU ASKED SAKURA-CHAN OUT ON A DATE?!"

"Shut _up_!" Sasuke hissed, "you're so loud."

"Naruto-kun, who is at the door?" Uzumaki Hinata appeared at the doorway, touching Naruto's bandaged arm.

"Oh, isn't it Sasuke-kun? It has been a long time! Come in!" She invited, gesturing Sasuke to come inside. Naruto shrugged and stepped aside, and Sasuke hesitantly stepped into the Uzumaki household.

"Please, sit down," Hinata softly urged, nodding her head to a comfortable-looking couch. The place was homely, not as orange as Sasuke thought it would be, and surprisingly clean. Sasuke and Naruto took a seat and Hinata disappeared into the kitchen, mentioning that she would make snacks and tea.

Marriage definitely did a number on both Naruto and Hinata.

Sasuke could see that Hinata had become less shy and more open, especially after Naruto had finally reciprocated her feelings. Now, she looked more like a confident kunoichi and wife instead of the stuttering mess of a girl he knew as a twelve-year-old. Naruto had become more organized, if Sasuke judged by the state of the house—that or Hinata was doing all of the cleaning. The papers sitting on top of stacks on the living room table indicated political matters. _Must be Hokage training_ , Sasuke thought.

"So? What exactly do you need advice on? There's really nothing hard about this: you just take Sakura-chan out, have a good time, kiss her, marry her, and make a family!"

Sasuke glared. "I'm asking _how_ exactly do I do that?"

"How exactly do you do what? Make a family? Sasuke... you're twenty-one and you've never been given 'the talk'? Or did defecting as a pre-teen deprive you of learning about s—"

"No, moron! I know where babies come from," he snapped, "I'm saying it's easy to say to just 'have a good time,' but I've _never_ _done anything like this before_."

Naruto laughed and put his hands up, signaling defeat.

"Okay, okay. Well, let's see... the key to a successful festival is... the festive outfit! Yeah!" Naruto abruptly turned his head and called out to his wife, "Hey Hinata, do you know where my yukata is? I'm thinking of letting Sasuke borrow it."

Hinata's head poked out of the kitchen.

"Hmm, yes, I think it's packed away somewhere in the storage closet. I'll go get it," she said as she set down a plate of senbei and two cups of tea. She scurried away into another room.

When she emerged with a decently big box, Naruto brightened. "Yeah! That's the one! Let's see..." He opened the lid and pulled out his yukata.

" _No_." Sasuke vehemently spat after one glance at the article of clothing. It was black with _bright orange_ flames patterned all around it.

"Why not? It's so cool!"

Not wishing to insult Naruto's fashion sense in front of his wife, who also took a seat in a nearby chair, Sasuke merely said, "You wear it. I'll find something else."

"If you insist, I guess." Naruto put his yukata back into the box and set it aside. "Okay, so next is what you should do on a date!"

Sasuke waited for him to go on.

"You gotta buy her a lot of things or win her things from games—girls like Sakura-chan love anything remotely cute. So whenever she screams how 'kawaii' something is, _get it for her_!"

"... Hn." Money was not an issue for Sasuke.

"And the food; pay for her food because street food at festivals are always amazing." Sasuke wasn't sure if Naruto was talking about his own preferences instead of Sakura's.

"Oh, and I know this might be super hard for you, but _try_ to show some emotions? Okay? If I hear you've been being an asshole to her, I'll kick your ass."

Sasuke rolled his eye.

"Anything to add, Hinata?" Naruto asked his wife.

Hinata thoughtfully put a finger on her chin. "Well, the only thing I would say is to be yourself, Sasuke-kun. If you act completely different from the person Sakura-san fell in love with, it will put her in an uncomfortable situation. Trust me, a girl's heart doesn't change so easily," Hinata said, her gaze settling onto Naruto in a loving manner. Naruto noticed and grinned back at her.

Sasuke stood up, awkwardly feeling out of place. "Thank you for having me."

"Sasuke-kun! Remember what I said!" Hinata called as Sasuke was almost out the door.

After he left, the Uzumaki couple was left sitting in the living room. A few seconds of silence passed and Hinata said in a worried voice, "I hope it goes well for Sakura-san."

Naruto laughed, finding his wife's worry for her friend adorable. He stood up and walked over to her seat, embracing her from behind.

"Sasuke will do fine."

Hinata closed her eyes and smiled, "Yeah." She touched his arms lovingly.

"So I've been thinking."

"Hm?"

"How do you feel about us... starting our own family?"

Hinata blushed and envisioned a baby in her arms, a cute little Naruto running around their home, or maybe even a little girl crying because she fell and scraped her knee.

She imagined nurturing her and Naruto's children into fine shinobi, helping to protect Konoha.

"I... I w-would love that very much..."

Naruto beamed.

* * *

If Sasuke was honest with himself, he never thought that he would come back to Konoha, much less be concerned about his future with a life partner. He always believed he would exact his revenge on Itachi and die doing so.

That was before he unraveled the whole conspiracy behind the massacre.

Now, Sasuke was _here_. Now, Sasuke had to think about his future. And when he really thought about it, he couldn't imagine a woman beside him other than his teammate from so long ago. When he really thought about it, he couldn't think of another woman who made him _feel_ so many different ways.

Sasuke remembered his corruption by Madara's hands.

 _Psychotic laughter resonated from his throat_ _._

 _"Bring back Itachi... and my mother.. and my father... AND MY CLAN! BRING THEM ALL BACK! THEN I'LL STOP!"_

 _"By killing every last one of you until Konoha is crushed forever, any link to the Uchiha will be severed and our name will be purified!_ That _is how I'll revive my clan!"_

 _"I'm going to kill every last person in your beloved village!"_

 _"Was she having fun in her make-believe fantasy of true love? As for me, I have absolutely no reason to love her and likewise, I can see no reason why she should love me."_

Sasuke closed his eyes and held his head with his only hand. _Stop_ , he ordered himself. He had suffered through countless of sleepless nights thinking about all of his past mistakes on his travels, realizing that he would never truly feel guilt-free for his words and actions. Swallowing down the bile that rose to the base of his throat, Sasuke continued walking. He needed to get to the old Uchiha district.

He saw a buzzing crowd down the street, in front of a small café. He was about to walk past the commotion until a familiar shade of pink standing right in the middle of the circle caught his eye. _Sakura_?

There was also a dirty pre-pubescent boy standing in front of her, angry and flustered. His coarse brown hair was way past due for a cut and dirt riddled his tattered clothes.

He watched her hold up her index finger.

"One finger," she said, "is all it takes for me to pound you into the ground."

"Bring it on lady!" The boy charged headfirst at Sakura. Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

Sakura sighed and swiftly ducked under the boy's terribly predictable and obvious punch and jabbed her forefinger into his shoulder. The crowd hastily parted as the boy flew a good twenty feet back.

"Ow!" The boy howled, clutching at his wound. Sakura calmly walked up to him. She squatted and placed a hand on his injured shoulder.

"That," she said in an even tone, squeezing the injury while the boy winced further, "was for trying to steal my purse." But then a healing green glow enveloped her hand. The boy looked at her in shock as his pain soothed.

"But this," her voice softened as did her facial expression, "is so that you learn your lesson." After healing him, she pulled out her wallet and whatever money she had and enclosed his fist around it. It didn't take a genius to see that the boy was probably homeless, most likely orphaned from the war.

His fist tightened around the money and he grit his teeth. Suddenly, he threw the money back at Sakura.

"I don't need your pity! I can earn money by myself, like a _real_ man! Just you watch!" He stood up and ran away, hair guarding his eyes and his mouth curled into a growling frown.

Sakura smiled, her plan following through. "That's the spirit." She gathered her money and wallet and stuffed both back into her purse. The crowd behind her murmured with praise.

"Did you see that? Sakura-san is _so_ cool!"

"Mama, I want to grow up to be just like her!"

"Yes, dear, that is lovely indeed."

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura noticed Sasuke's presence. He turned to her. She was a palette of colors, a splash of pastel. She was... she was—

"So pretty!" A young girl chirped and bounded up to them both. Sasuke stiffened at the sudden presence. Seriously, as one of the most powerful ninja in the world, one would think a toddler couldn't sneak up on him! She was a cute little creature, with a bright yellow dress and brown pigtails. Her large brown eyes shined with excitement. Her mother was not far behind.

"Rumi! Don't disturb other people!" She admonished. The little girl named Rumi ignored her mother's call.

"Rumi thinks you're pretty!" She repeated, talking in the third person. Sakura laughed.

"Why, thank you Rumi-chan. Here, a treat for you." Sakura pulled out a piece of hard candy from her purse and gave it to the girl. She lit up in excitement and ran back to her mother.

"Mama! Look what I got!" The mother gave Sakura and Sasuke an apologetic look and she and her child walked away, hand in hand.

"Rumi-chan, it's okay to receive candy from Sakura-san, but don't ever take candy from strangers, okay?"

"Okay!"

Sasuke and Sakura stared after their backs. He turned to her.

"You're good with children," he observed. Suddenly, she turned red.

"W-well, I'm a doctor, so I do this kind of thing on a daily basis," she stammered, hyper aware of her consciousness.

"Hmm..." Sasuke made a noncommittal noise, his face blank.

"Um, I... I should get going," Sakura said in an embarrassed tone. She turned around and started walking.

Sasuke stuffed his hand into his pants pocket and trailed after her. The left sleeve of his long back shirt flapped slightly with the breeze.

"Oh, you're going in this direction too?"

"Hn."

"Alright then."

They continued like that for quite some time, Sakura ambling down the road and Sasuke leisurely following her.

"..." Sakura's eyes kept glancing to the side, but she refused to fully turn her head to look at Sasuke.

"Isn't.. isn't your apartment the other way?" Sakura inquired. Sasuke should have taken a left at a fork they passed a while ago. He remained silent.

When they reached Sakura's apartment, they stood outside the bottom of the building.

"Well, I'm heading in. See you tomorrow!" She headed up the stairs, uncertain. Sasuke stared after her. After making sure she was safely in her home, he turned and left.

Deciding to expend a little chakra, he jumped over roofs to the Uchiha District. The district, as with the rest of Konoha, had been squashed like a bug under Pain's attack, but it had been rebuilt out of curtesy of the Uchiha's old history with the village. Sasuke couldn't stand being in there for more than he needed, because it made him relive unwanted memories.

He entered the rebuilt version of his old home, back when his parents were still alive. Back when Itachi was still alive. All of the things that were salvaged were packed in boxes. Carefully, he sifted through the items.

After an hour of searching, he miraculously came across what he was looking for. Snatching the item, he closed the boxes and quickly left the compound.

Looking up, Sasuke noticed that evening had descended. The moon hung high in the sky, gleaming as bright as ever.

* * *

Sakura woke up extremely early the following morning. Actually, she couldn't really get any sleep at all.

She threw off her covers and got ready for work, donning her casual clothes and her red forehead protector.

When she arrived at the hospital and started working, she couldn't help but glance at the clock every few minutes. It was still early in the morning.

 _This is going to be a long day_ , she thought.

Sakura tried to lose herself with her patients' troubles, focusing on each and every one of them during her rounds.

At around noon, Sakura was just about to go for her lunch break when her pager beeped.

 _An emergency?!_ She thought, concern immediately spreading across her visage. She ran out of her office and sprinted to the room that needed assistance.

"Sakura-sensei!" The nurse in the room stepped aside, and Sakura ran up to the patient. The ex-kunoichi in the hospital bed was wheezing and coughing a pink foamy mucus. She was an amputee; her right leg had been crushed during the war. Sakura closed her eyes and put a hand on the patient's chest. Using her chakra to scan her, Sakura's eyes snapped open.

"It's a pulmonary embolism. Prepare an operating room immediately!" She ordered.

"Right!" The nurse scurried out.

Whatever thoughts Sakura had of the festival flew out of her mind as saving this patient's life took priority.

Promptly at three o'clock, Ino stood outside of Sakura's apartment, banging on her door.

"SAKURA! You didn't forget about your _date_ , did you?"

But there was no answer. Thinking Sakura had fallen asleep after work, Ino took out her spare key to the apartment and let herself inside, ready to pour cold water over Sakura's head. But when she wrenched open the door to Sakura's bedroom, it was empty. In fact, the entire apartment was empty.

Ino sat down at the kitchen table, crossing her legs. _She probably just got caught up at work. I'll just wait for her here._

The hands on the clock ticked by. Five minutes turned into ten, which turned into thirty. Ino put her head down on the table and drifted off.

Just after four o'clock, she heard the front door unlock. She jumped out of her seat.

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT TIME IT IS?!" She yelled.

Sakura tiredly threw her hands up in defense.

"Sorry! Emergency surgery!"

Ino sighed in defeat, "... Can't help that. Anyway, we have no time! I'm giving you five minutes top to take a shower! You reek of sweat." She shoved Sakura into the bathroom.

After a quick shower, Sakura wrapped her head in a towel. Ino helped her into her new yukata, expertly tying her obi into a cute bow in the back. She let her hair out of the towel and blow-dried it on the highest setting, roughly shaking her hands through Sakura's hair. She glanced at the clock. 4:30PM. Ino created a fast updo, french-braiding her hair across her head like a headband and diagonally braiding it into a twisting bun at the nape of her neck. The resulting look almost imitated a flower. A few loose strands framed Sakura's face.

Ino almost panicked when the clock read 4:40.

"Sakura, sit still!" She demanded, and worked on Sakura's face as quickly as she could. She thanked the heavens that Sakura pulled off the "natural look" the best.

When the time was nearing five o'clock, Ino pushed Sakura into wooden geta with thick thongs.

"Alright! Now go be fashionably late!"

"Thanks Ino, I owe you one!" Sakura trotted off, out of her apartment and down the street.

"Hell yeah you do!" Ino called after her.

* * *

Sasuke was leaning against the huge girth of a giant oak tree when he sensed Sakura's chakra rushing toward him.

She was late. He felt her stop behind him.

"You're late," He stated before turning around.

"Sorry," she replied, sheepish.

When he did turn around, he stopped in his tracks at the sight before him.

Sakura donned a dark red yukata with long sleeves and a navy blue obi. Elegant white petals were patterned throughout it in an asymmetrical way. Her collarbone was prominent and one side of the yukata slipped, her supple neck showing. Sasuke almost gulped.

Her porcelain face was very lightly powdered, eyes lined with slightly smokey kohl and lips painted. Her hair was intricately woven up, and she wore a pair of tiny white pearls on each earlobe, which completed the aesthetic.

Sakura's eyes had been locked to the ground. When she turned her gaze to Sasuke, she couldn't help but feel her mouth hang slightly open as she also surveyed him.

She didn't think Sasuke would be the type to dress up for this kind of event. A lot of men just attended festivals in their casual clothes, after all. But Sasuke wore a male dark navy yukata, one that looked maybe a little too big for his lithe figure because his toned chest peaked through. However, his hair and face remained unchanged. Sakura had to actively prevent her hands from flying up to her cheeks in embarrassment by fiddling her fingers together.

"That yukata..."

Sasuke cleared his throat, finding his breath. "It was my father's."

Before he let Sakura see the pink dusting his ears, he walked past her.

"Let's go."

Sakura gazed at his back. The Uchiha symbol all but glowed under the twilight sky, and the sleeve of his missing left forearm billowed lightly as he walked.

Wordlessly, she followed after him and matched her stride with his.

They were silent the entire walk to the festivities, wooden geta clacking on the road. Slowly, more and more people appeared as Sasuke and Sakura entered the busy street.

Heads turned in their direction and gossip filled the air about the dazzling pair. Sakura looked down at her feet, secretly happy.

Suddenly, her stomach let out an atrocious growl. Sasuke looked down at her with a raised eyebrow and she flushed.

"I haven't had anything to eat all day..." she muttered. Sasuke looked around and his eyes settled on an odeng street vendor. Tilting his head in that direction, he led Sakura over.

"Four," he simply said to the vendor.

"Coming right up, sir!" Sasuke placed money onto the counter. The owner handed over two sticks of fishcake in each hand. Sasuke took two and handed them to Sakura who gratefully accepted, and then took the remaining two for himself.

Sakura, observing the entire exchange, asked a question that had been on her mind for a while when they were walking together once more.

"Doesn't using only one hand for everything get annoying at times? Why not accept Shishou's prostethic arm?"

Sasuke looked down at her and was reminded of all the times he tried to kill Naruto with his left hand's chidori. When he tried to kill her with that very hand.

"I... I need it to be this way. As a reminder. As punishment."

"But... haven't you punished yourself enough? You're forgiven, you know."

Sasuke looked away. She really _was_ too good for him.

"I haven't forgiven myself."

And Sakura left it at that. She munched on her odeng-on-a-stick and took in the sight of all of the festival booths. A glint out of the corner of her eye caught her attention.

"Oh! So cool!" She exclaimed, referring to one of the prizes at a game booth. Sasuke followed her gaze. It was a game that called for players to knock over stacked milk bottles. Often, the game was rigged to make the milk bottles extremely heavy and the ball extremely soft, rendering it difficult to throw and knock them over.

Suddenly, Sasuke recalled Naruto's words. _"Girl's like Sakura-chan love anything remotely cute. So whenever she screams how 'kawaii' something is,_ get it for her!"

Sasuke looked at the prizes. There was a huge fluffy stuffed bunny hanging overhead, its beady eyes staring at Sasuke like the eyes of a dead fish. Sakura hadn't exactly said "cute," but Sasuke assumed "cool" meant something similar. However, before Sasuke could go up to the booth, Sakura herself bounded over and slapped some money on the counter.

"I'd like to try!" She cheerfully exclaimed. The vendor, a middle-aged man whose face screamed 'con-artist!' deviously smiled.

"Oh? Are you sure, miss? This is harder than it looks," he slyly said as he took her money and handed Sakura three foam balls. Sakura weighed the balls in her hand.

"I think I'll be fine," she sweetly smiled and took a deep breath.

Rolling up the sleeve of her right arm, she wound it a few times and bellowed, " _SHANNARO!"_ And released the first ball. The force of her throw made the ball impossible to see with the naked eye as it completely shattered the milk bottles into tiny fragments and left a steaming hole on the back wall of the booth.

"I won!" She cheered, much to the vendor's and bystanders' gaping faces.

The booth operator rubbed his eyes as if he couldn't believe what just occurred. "W-what would y-you like as your prize, m-miss?"

Sakura pointed to a glimmering new shuriken set hanging at the top corner of the prize wall. "That."

Sasuke smirked, amused.

Sasuke and Sakura continued down the street. Sakura forced him to play some games, much to his embarrassment. He won a balloon darts game, which was rigged similarly to the milk bottle booth (but wasn't anything his Sharingan couldn't handle) and ended up giving Sakura the toy ring that was inside the balloon as a prize. She looked extremely happy and wore it proudly, although Sasuke personally thought it looked very childish. They scooped for goldfish, although both failed to catch any. They tried different foods.

As the night went on, Sasuke and Sakura both grew tired. They were walking together again, this time at the end of where all of the festivities were happening, when they met another couple.

"Sakura-chan!" They both turned to look at the person who called Sakura's name.

"Naruto! Hinata!" Sure enough, the Uzumaki couple came into view. Naruto was wearing his black yukata adorned with orange flames, and Hinata was dolled up into a simple lavender-colored one. Sakura thought Hinata looked absolutely beautiful in her clothing.

"So Sasuke, you took my advice, eh?" Naruto grinned, bounding up to Sasuke and clapping him on the back.

"Advice?" Sakura questioned.

Sasuke quickly bit out, "It's nothing."

"Oi! Sakura!" A new voice interrupted. Ino ran up to the two pairs, and Sai calmly followed behind her.

"Ino, Sai! Wow, everyone's meeting up today!" Sakura laughed. Ino was dressed in deep violet, while Sai was casually in a black shirt, grey open hoodie, and black pants.

"I'm going to borrow these two for _just_ a tiny second, alright?" Ino didn't wait for a reply as she dragged Naruto by the ear and pulled Sasuke by the collar of his yukata along with her. Sakura blinked.

"Now what's that all about?"

Hinata, who was also confused, shrugged. But she had an idea of what Ino was probably planning. She looked back to Sakura and changed the subject, finally getting the chance to say what she wanted to for a year and a half.

"Sakura-san, I never got the chance to thank you."

Sakura tilted her head, "For what?"

Hinata smiled and took Sakura's hands into hers.

"For supporting me when I needed it. This time, I would like to encourage _you_ , because you deserve this more than anybody else."

"Hinata..." Sakura called in a small voice, touched.

Back on Ino's end, she executed Part One of her plan. Inside of a bush.

"Sasuke-kun, here," she shoved something into his hand. It was a white flower about the size of his fist.

He stared at it in question.

"Don't you think it would look absolutely _fabulous_ in Sakura's hair? Especially if you know what it means in flower language."

"..."

"Ugh, you men are so hopeless. White gardenias mean _secret love_! Isn't that _so_ romantic?"

"Hey, why was _I_ dragged here?"

Ino turned to the other blonde, almost forgetting that she brought him as well.

"Oh, so I can tell you to STAY OUT OF THE WAY!" She yelled.

"RUDE! I'm never in the way!"

Sasuke simply gave Naruto a pointed look.

"... Okay, maybe sometimes," he conceded.

"Go!" Ino urged Sasuke. He gave an annoyed sigh and shoved the flower into the inside pocket of his yukata. He walked back to where Sakura was standing.

Hinata, seeing Naruto wave her over, smiled and said, "Well, it looks like I must go. Please have a good night, Sakura-san!"

"Likewise, Hinata!"

Hinata left just as Sasuke came back.

"So, what did Ino want you for?"

"It's nothing."

"O-oh."

The pair traveled into the forest and soon came into a clearing where a crisp river was running through. Sakura let out a delighted noise and hiked up her yukata, sitting down at the edge of a few rocks and dipping her feet in. Sasuke tried not to notice how high the yukata rode up her legs.

"Look! Fireflies!" She laughed softly. Little green dots flitted about the air, like stars twinkling in the midnight sky.

 _"I know this might be super hard for you, but_ try _to show some emotions? Okay?"_

Sasuke reached into his pocket, and Sakura looked at him in confusion. He pulled out the flower and Sakura's eyes widened as she realized it was the same flower she saw at Ino's shop from the previous morning. Suddenly, she felt like she knew why Ino momentarily pulled Sasuke aside.

Sasuke's eye twitched as he was aware of the presences behind the bushes a few yards back. Seriously, these people were _ninja_ , and they all seemed to be as terrible as Naruto in stealth! Ignoring the obvious rustling of the bushes, as Sakura hadn't seem to notice, he swallowed and knelt down, carefully placing the flower in Sakura's hair just above her left ear. She froze at his touch.

Unbeknownst to Sakura, this was Sasuke's second confession. Taking a deep breath, he gathered himself to _finally_ verbalize his thoughts.

But he couldn't as a figure deftly swooped down in front of them.

Sasuke and Sakura immediately jumped up, falling into a defensive position as the air around them suddenly became heavy and suffocating.

"Why hello, Sakura."

* * *

 **A/N: DUN DUN DUN. Honestly, I thought about deleting this story because I think it's riddled with clich** **és,** **but after all you all followed/favorited/reviewed it I'm really really trying my best to do better with my ideas.**


	3. Tempest

**Seriously, you all made me well up with tears with your reviews, favorites, and follows, especially after I had a rough midterm week :') so I'm glad most of you like my story** **—** **Sasuke and Sakura's story. Thereby I present to you Chapter Three! Can't believe this fic is more than 50% done...**

 **I will be going back and editing past chapters after I complete this whole story to make the horrendous writing a little better lmao**

 **I don't own Naruto. Enjoy!**

* * *

Sasuke's obsidian eye dangerously narrowed as he found it difficult to breathe in such a suffocating presence. Seeing Sakura shift uncomfortably in his peripheral vision, he guessed that whatever was oppressing the atmosphere was affecting her too.

The threatening figure had seemingly fallen from the sky, lightly landing onto the ground without so much as an indent into the earth. His dark cloak flapped about in almost slow motion, and when it settled around his body as he stood up from his landing position, his features were unveiled. The man's plum-colored eyes were fixated on Sakura, roving over her physique like a hungry child and pale blonde curls softly flowing with the breeze.

"Sakura... you're even more beautiful than last time," he murmured, a smile gracing his sickly lips. Sakura visibly tensed, thrown off by this man's words and still not quite sure of his identity. Sasuke instinctively took a protective step toward her, this time with a piercing glare.

"Who are you?" Sakura cautiously inquired. She slowly reached for the pack of new shuriken she won not even a few hours ago. The man's smile fell into a slight frown.

"Do you not... remember me?" He intoned, effeminate voice wavering with disappointment. Quiet descended between the trio, as Sakura perused his countenance. The sound of the tumbling river deafened the clear night.

A wave of memories surged inside of her mind and she vaguely recognized him.

"You... you're that vagabond from...!"

He sighed, "So you _didn't_ forget," relief resounded through his soft voice, "yes, it is I, Hotaru."

"Sakura, who is he?" Sasuke questioned through gritted teeth, wary of the shear amount of ominous chakra crushing everything in the immediate vicinity that was permeating from this stranger.

Without taking her eyes off of the man, Sakura answered, "He was a traveler who fell ill on the road—I came across him near Tanigakure on my way back from a mission in Suna and tried to help heal him. But he vanished before I could find a way..."

"And what does he want with you now?" Sasuke bit out. Sakura's eyebrows furrowed together.

"I'm not sure..."

"What I want _with_ Sakura? Not at all, dear Sasuke. I _want_ Sakura." The man called Hotaru laughed, sending chills down Sakura's spine. Sasuke tightened his fists. "Sakura, my love, your temporary medicine was simply _superb_. But you are intelligent, and you were catching on to who I truly am too fast. I needed to gather myself and devise a strategy."

 _Catching on to who he truly is?_ She thought, and the gears began turning in her head. "You're... not a human from Earth," she realized. Sasuke became even more guarded as his expression grew cautious.

Her brain recalled the research she hastily conducted during her week with Hotaru as a patient.

"From a biopsy of your lungs, I found that your cells possess not only an excessive number of oddly shaped mitochondria, but ones about _one hundred-fifty percent larger_ than the size of a normal human's." Sakura's eyes grew wide. "But what shocked me the most was when I brought the last of your blood sample back to my lab to examine under an electron microscope: there's free-floating genetic material in your cells that have molecular structures different from those of the five common nitrogenous bases found in the DNA and RNA of humans!"

Sasuke wasn't quite sure what any of that meant, but he was certain it wasn't anything good.

"As expected of you, Sakura," Hotaru's eyes gleamed, impressed. "Yes. As you guessed, I am not of this world. And you will no longer be either, once you agree to my proposition."

"... Proposition?" Sakura asked.

"Come with me, and your little village remains unharmed."

Her eyes narrowed into a glare, "What if I don't want to?"

Hotaru let out a tired sigh and closed his eyes, "Then I will raze your beloved hometown to the ground, and _then_ you will come with me."

"LIKE HELL YOU WILL!" Naruto, Hinata, Ino, and Sai decided that they had had enough and burst out of the bushes they were hidden behind, flanking Sasuke and Sakura and determined to defend their village.

"I was wondering when you would show yourselves," Hotaru simply said, skimming over the new entrants with an unsurprised and unimpressed look. He turned his gaze back to Sakura. "I don't want to make this difficult for you. I wouldn't want to kill your friends."

Sakura blinked and dryly laughed. "My friends aren't that easy to kill," she replied while untying her obi. She retied her yukata, methodically pushing back the long sleeves and dress out of the way in order to make it easier for her to fight and dodge.

"Hinata, what can you see?" Naruto asked. Without needing to be told what to do, the veins around Hinata's pearly white eyes bulged prominently. Subsequently, Sasuke's visible eye seeped blood red and black, the six-pointed star of his Mangekyo Sharingan spurring to life. Hinata gasped, and Sasuke knew exactly why because he could see it too.

"His chakra pathways... are so wide," she observed. "And he possesses an uncanny amount of strange, _colorless_ , chakra... Naruto-kun, everyone, please be careful."

Sai turned to Ino. "Ino, go inform Hokage-sama of this," he asserted.

"What?! I can't just leave you guys here to fight this creep without me!"

"Ino, _please_. Hokage-sama must know."

Ino bit her lower lip, extremely reluctant to leave Sai and Sakura behind.

"If you end up getting yourself killed, I _swear_ I will find a way to bring you back to life and kill you myse—oomph!" Sai cut her off by quickly pulling her into a hug. His bangs shadowed his face, hiding his expression.

He muttered, " _Ninpo: Choujuu Giga_ ," and shoved her onto a giant inky bird swooping forward from his scroll.

"SAI!" Ino screamed, hand outstretched and fearing for his and the rest of her friends' fates as she and the super beast imitation drawing rapidly flew toward the Hokage Tower.

"Sorry, but without Shikamaru and Chouji, your mind techniques have little chance of working," Sai said softly, watching her retreating form.

"How _sweet_ ," Hotaru mocked, swiping his cloak back, "but I am finished playing. Sakura, this is your last warning. _Come with me_."

Sasuke also decided that he had waited long enough.

"Sakura. Stand back," he commanded and pulled out the sealing scroll laying in the left inner breast pocket of his yukata.

Although Sakura's first instinct was to argue with his order because _she was strong damnit_ , she knew it wasn't exactly the time to try and prove herself when her main role was as a support. So she nodded and fell back with Hinata, ready to fulfill her supporting duty as a medic and continued to be locked into a defensive mode.

Swiftly, Sasuke hurled the scroll open, releasing his chokuto. Tossing the scroll behind him, he snatched the sword and unsheathed it in midair and bolted through the clearing in a blur. Naruto and Sai immediately followed his queue without being prompted. Naruto summoned ten of his Kage Bunshin and Sai whipped up another one of his specialty paintings.

Just before Sasuke reached the man, electric blue lightning surged through his sword and he swung it so fast neither Sakura nor Hinata could see it happen. However, right before the lightning sword could slice through Hotaru like a hot knife through butter, it was deflected so hard by an invisible force that Sasuke was blown back into the forest, crashing through at least five trees. The villain didn't even blink an eye.

Sakura shouted with concern, taking a step forward.

Naruto and Sai followed up on Sasuke's attack and Naruto and his clones pounced at the bored-looking man. With just a raise of his hand, Hotaru obliterated each clone and incarnated beast with pulses of invisible chakra, and the two also went flying backwards after being hit. Naruto was able to pull himself back to his feet, but Sai seemed to have gotten the brunt of the attack and remained down. Sakura ran over to him and immediately assessed his condition.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata cried, worried.

"Naruto! Call the Kyuubi!" Sasuke emerged from the trail of demolished trees with a dash.

Naruto screamed, "KURAMA!" and golden light enveloped him as he entered into Kurama Mode. The Kyuubi manifested from Naruto's chakra.

Sasuke threw the string of his sheathed sword around his shoulder. Then he held up his palm, slamming the air in a manner such that if he had both hands he'd be clapping them with great force. This caused his hair to fly out of his face, and his Rinnegan visibly flashed as he activated its powers.

" _Chibaku Tensei_!" He shouted, forming a giant black orb in the sky. As he didn't want the whole village to be sucked in, Sasuke focused on containing the orb to just the surrounding area. Suddenly, trees started to uproot and rocks and dirt flew up as the ball pulled them in. Kurama's chakra kept Hinata, as well as Sakura and Sai, in place.

Hotaru stared at the orb of gravity, and then let out a laugh. "Ha... ha ha. Hahaha, AHAHAHAHAHA, HAHAHAHAHA!" He threw his head back, cackling wildly, as if Sasuke had just told the funniest joke he had ever heard in his life.

"It's not going to work," He deadpanned, and he was able to calmly stalk over to Sasuke without being affected at all by the power of the Deva Path. Sasuke stepped back, bewildered, eyes wide open.

"Want to know a little secret?" Hotaru snidely asked. He gleefully laughed, pure evil seeping through his voice, "My chakra can manipulate _dark matter and dark energy_!"

* * *

"Mama... I feel so tired, like I wanna just go to sleep right now," Ino, racing toward the Hokage Tower overhead under the night sky, heard a small civilian boy complain. He sat down right in the middle of the road, and his hand, which was holding half-eaten pink cotton candy, drooped to the ground and he let go of the sweet treat.

"Tai! You'll get your... yukata... dirty..." and before his mother could scoop him off of the ground, she too keeled over. One by one, the people on the street started to feel heavy, like there was a literal burden on their shoulders. One by one, they fell to the ground. Even the buildings creaked and groaned at the weight, their foundations visibly sinking.

Ino could feel it too: an unknown force pressing down on the village. Sai's beast painting was starting to lose its shape, ink dripping and raining down below.

 _Don't tell me it's from_ that _guy?!_

Ino was scared. Not for herself, but for Sai. For Sakura. For Sasuke, Hinata, and Naruto. For the village.

Suddenly, she heard booming thuds in the distance behind her. When she looked back, she saw several trees fall over from the direction she came from. Worry etching across her face, she turned to Sai's super beast imitation drawing, which was rapidly losing form faster than before.

 _Please hold out until I get to Hokage-sama!_ She pleaded, referring to both the group fighting the cloaked man and Sai's painting.

When she reached the tower, the brought-to-life painting disintegrated and Ino was able to hurtle her way up to the Hokage's office. She burst right in, not caring to knock. Right when she entered, the effects of Hotaru's jutsu (or whatever it was) finally reached the area.

Kakashi raised his eyebrow when Ino slammed open the door and was about to question her when all of a sudden, he had to hold his head and push himself against the desk from crashing right through it. Ino fell to the ground.

"What.. what _is_ this?"

"H-Hokage-sama..." Ino grunted, struggling to breathe as her cheek was smashed against the hard floor, "Sasuke-kun, S-Sakura... need help..."

And Kakashi abruptly felt the presence in the outskirts of the village. Taking great strength to crane his neck to the window, a black sphere appeared in the sky.

 _Sasuke?_ The sphere sucked in trees, boulders, and water from the river, but nothing more. _What's going on_?

"Naruto, Sai, and... Hi..nata are... there too," Ino gasped.

After nearly a minute, the orb dissipated as quickly as it formed. The direction where it came from appeared quiet and still.

 _Is it over_? Kakashi wondered but had a feeling far from it, as he was still being smothered under heavy air. He wished he was able to move, to help his former students combat this powerful threat and protect the village from it. But all he could do was place his hope onto his ninja.

Even so, his face grew grim.

 _I have an extremely bad feeling about this_.

* * *

Naruto felt a terrible sensation creep up his stomach. "Dark... matter? Dark energy?" he questioned, hardening his expression. Hotaru looked at Naruto with a sly smile.

"That's right," he condescendingly affirmed. "In other words..." He turned back to Sasuke, "I can control gravity _better than that silly eye of yours_!" And he brought his hand down, as if to demonstrate. Instinctively, Sasuke's purple Susanoo flared to life and protectively wrapped around him, but the weight of the gravity put down upon it was so extreme it broke through the chakra armor and Sasuke instantly slammed to the ground face first, fracturing the earth. His body trembled at the weight of the gravity over him, as he struggled to get back up.

"Sasuke!" Naruto yelled, and he started forward in an attempt to help his best friend. But Hotaru swiped his other hand in a downward motion and the gravity around Naruto intensified as well. Naruto tumbled over onto his left side and gasped in pain, blood and spit splattering from his mouth.

Sakura clenched her fists and bared her teeth. She couldn't just sit on the sidelines now. Not when her teammates needed her help!

Hinata seemed to share the same sentiment, as she called under hooded eyes, "Sakura-san." She was shaking. Sakura looked at her and nodded, leaning Sai against the thick trunk of a tree.

"Hinata... Sakura-chan... get away!" Naruto coughed. Sasuke struggled to look up.

Although she didn't have her trademark gloves with her, Sakura didn't particularly care about the knuckle injuries she would most likely sustain when throwing a punch.

Her hands glowed a striking blue as she concentrated her chakra into the tips of her fingers, molding them into blades with perfect precision.

Likewise, Hinata's hands were engulfed by blue chakra in the shape of giant lions' heads as her Byakugan veins bulged angrily around her eyes.

"Let's go!"

Sakura shot forward, using her precise chakra control to push with immense strength against the oppressive gravity crushing down against her. Hinata, who also possessed extremely fine control, followed, although she had to stay close behind Sakura as her control wasn't _quite_ as exact. Hotaru raised an eyebrow with interest.

"I wouldn't have expected any less from my future wife," he stated with a hint of pride. However, he got too caught up in his amusement because before he could further intensify the gravity around the two women, they were able to reach him.

Hinata jumped out from behind Sakura to attack first.

" _Juuho, Soushiken_!" She cried, opting for a head-on attack. Hotaru swiftly pulled a hand up into a one-handed seal neither Sakura nor Hinata had seen before, different from the twelve common zodiac seals.

And before Hinata's twin lion fists could pulverize him, Hotaru sent her arms pounding into the ground. Her fists created two craters in the ground and she let out a short scream at the painful impact, bones likely shattered.

Sakura wasted no time using the slight opening Hinata created and quickly swiped at him from the side. But because the gravity around him was so heavy, Sakura's attack was a lot slower than she typically would have executed—after all, she _did_ have to expend chakra on fighting the gravity. He easily dodged the chakra scalpel and snatched her wrist from the air.

Hotaru pulled her close in one motion, used his other hand to grab her chin, an swooped his head down as he pressed a kiss to the very corner of her mouth. Sakura reeled in shock, her surprised noise muffled by Hotaru's mouth.

"Sakura!" Sasuke choked in outrage.

" _Delicious_ ," He remarked when he drew back, tasting the sweet remnants of the festival food she had eaten not long before by licking his lips. Sakura stared wide-eyed at the man.

When she snapped out of her stupor, she angrily swung her feet under his, and he tripped just a bit as both of his hands were still holding onto her. Gathering a colossal amount of chakra to her dominant foot, Sakura aimed to stomp him down as she screamed, " _SHANNARO_!"

Hotaru threw up another one-handed seal, this time different from the one he used on Hinata. Unlike from what he'd shown thus far, this time the gravity around Sakura lightened to the point she was nearly floating. This nearly threw her off-balance, but she didn't let it faze her. She pumped in even more chakra and screamed, persevering on counteracting the lightness.

Naruto, realizing what Sakura was about to do, used the shift in gravity as an opportunity to protect Hinata and Sai with Kyuubi's chakra.

The weightless gravity gave just enough time for Hotaru to maneuver out of the way just as Sakura's wooden-clad feet came crashing down onto the earth.

A deafening _BOOM_ resounded. The geta on Sakura's foot disintegrated upon impact, and she was left standing on one bare foot in the middle of the quasi-valley she had just created. One sleeve of her yukata had completely torn off, revealing her chest bound in a roll of white bandages. Cuts and bruises riddled her visible skin. Her hair threatened to fall out of its beautiful do, and the white flower that Sasuke gave her laid on the dirt in front of her.

But Hotaru remained unscathed, as he floated high into the air weightless as a feather. He surveyed the damage Sakura had caused. The entire clearing was obliterated, no trees or river in sight. Just cratered dirt. The destruction reached just shy of the streets of the village. He was impressed by the near perfection of Sakura's control.

He turned to look back at her. Eyes shadowed by loose hair, she stood unmoving appearing to be strong, but he could see that if she took one step, she would stagger and fall over.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the raven-haired man struggling to his feet in an attempt to make his way toward Sakura. Hotaru frowned and immediately manipulated the gravity around the area to keep everyone in place. Sakura didn't have the strength anymore to push back the weight of the air. In a flash, he appeared before her, crushing the flower under his shoe.

"I warned you, Sakura. Are you prepared to see your beloved home demolished into nothing?"

Sakura's head snapped up and her eyes met his, pleading.

"No... please don't...!"

Hotaru outstretched his hand in the direction of the village. Suddenly, she could see the buildings sink into the ground inch by inch and heard the anguished screams of the civilians in the distance.

"STOP!" She shrieked, growing hysterical, "I'll.. I'll come willingly! Just, please, _stop_."

He closed his fist, halting the destruction of Konoha.

"Please," Sakura begged, one more time. Hotaru closed his eyes.

"Tell me that you want to be with me," He demanded. Sakura's breath caught in her throat but she had no other choice.

Her voice wavered, "I-I want... to be with you..."

"Sakura, no!" Sasuke furiously shouted from his position on the ground.

"Sakura-chan!"

"Come here." Hotaru held out his arms. Sakura complied, and stumbled into his embrace. He caressed her head and waist against his chest and body.

"Sakura!"

Sakura's eyes turned to Sasuke and he couldn't hear anything as his mind went into shock and everything around him slid into a deafening silence.

He saw her mouth the words, " _I'm sorry_." And she immediately vanished along with Hotaru, only leaving behind crystalline tears that trailed the air with a sparkle.

" _SAKURA_!"

* * *

Kakashi could move again. _Is it over now?_

He shot up as Ino gasped for air. After making sure she was okay, the first thing he did was jump out the window in the direction where the destruction occurred—in the direction where his former students were. His Rokudaime Hokage coat billowed behind him.

He quickly flashed his way over to the outskirts of the village.

 _Please_ _, let everyone be safe._ He silently wished.

When he dropped down into the giant crater, no doubt made by Sakura, he looked around for his underling ninja. Sasuke was on his knees, staring at the ground in shock, and Naruto supported him up by holding his shoulders. Hinata lied unconscious beside them, arms laying palms up at her sides. Sai sat near them as well, nursing his shoulder with the opposite hand.

But there was one person missing. Kakashi gulped.

"Where's... Sakura?" At the mention of her name, Sasuke's head snapped up, eyes wide. Slowly, he gritted his teeth.

"I will _destroy_ _him_!" He growled, and staggered to his feet.

"Sasuke! Sasuke, stop!" Naruto stood up as well.

"Don't stop me! I'm going to get her back!"

"Be rational! I want Sakura-chan back too! But we just got creamed by this guy!"

"Then what are you telling me to do?! Just sit here and do nothing?! I need to get her back _right now_ before the creep does something to her!"

"No, bastard! I'm saying we should make a plan!"

Kakashi exhaled, "Sasuke, Naruto is right. There's not much you can do right now. You need to rest, and once we figure out where Sakura's been taken, we will definitely get her back."

"..." Sasuke fell silent. Pushing past Naruto, he limped his way over to where Sakura had been standing just moments before.

He knelt down and touched the trampled petals of the white flower that had once rested in her hair. It was wet with Sakura's tears.

Sasuke's greatest fear was losing another person close to him.

And it seemed like his greatest fear just came true.

* * *

When Sakura opened her eyes, all she saw was stone grey.

She sat up and looked around the dreary space. "Where... am I?"

"Ah, you're awake."

Sakura turned to the voice and nearly touched noses with Hotaru. She instantly inched backwards and drew up her knees as if they could be a barrier between them.

He had shed his cloak, and she could see that he wore a loose, flowing white shirt tucked slightly into black pants. His feet were bare, and she noticed that hers were too. In fact, she saw glowing shackle-like rings clasped around her ankles and wrists. _Chakra restraints_ , she realized. So she couldn't fight back. Yet.

A tiny dot of glowing green from the corner of her eye caught her attention.

"Fireflies?" She questioned, confused.

"Yes... they are my only friends," Hotaru explained. Sakura's face softened just a little as her heart betrayed her and felt a bit of pity for this man. He was the namesake of this pretty insect, which landed on his outstretched finger. Sakura silently watched.

She shook her head. This was the same man who hurt Sasuke, Naruto, Sai, and Hinata! This was the same man who was going to demolish her village.

"Did you take me so I could heal you?" She asked, deciding not to beat around the bush. Hotaru released the firefly.

"Yes, and no," he answered, looking at her directly in the eye. Sakura looked at him in confusion.

"I brought you here so you can become my wife."

Sakura's eyebrows drew together in confusion. "But... _why_? Why me? I'm sure there are plenty of women on your planet who would be happy to be with yo—"

"They're all dead. Everyone here is dead, and I am the only one left."

Sakura reeled in surprise. "O-oh, sorry..."

"Why? You didn't kill them," he simply said. She looked away.

"Just an expression of condolence..." She muttered. "But that still doesn't answer why you want _me_ to be your wife."

"You are the strongest, most beautiful, and most compassionate woman on Earth."

Embarrassed, Sakura put her head down in between her knees. Sasuke had never complimented her like that in her life. _You're weak, you're annoying_ , he would tell her. But that didn't mean her heart would be swayed. She loved Sasuke, after all. Not this alien.

Hotaru continued, "And when you heal me enough, we will both eat the fruit from the Shinju and attain power beyond comprehension. Then, we'll annihilate Earth of its wretched earthlings and start that world anew. We will begin something amazing together."

Taking a moment to process what he just said, Sakura gasped in anger, "You _liar_! You said you wouldn't touch the village!"

"I said that I wouldn't touch your village if you came with me. Now that you are with me, I make no promises."

"... But _I_ am an earthling," Sakura pointed out, and her eyes narrowed in fury.

"You are _different_ from those sinful creatures." Hotaru didn't want to say that humans from Earth were the only species that people from his planet could intergalactically mate with.

"I love someone else!" She blurted. He frowned.

"You will love me, when I am the only one left to love."

* * *

Sasuke couldn't get any sleep because his mind was plagued with Sakura's kidnapping, but he felt that he rested well enough to _finally_ start retrieving her. The first thing he did in the morning was pack his tools and supplies, change into his mission attire and cloak, and head to the Hokage's office. There, he met Naruto, Sai, and Shikamaru. They stood expectantly in front of Kakashi, who looked beyond fatigued.

"You four are officially appointed on a mission to retrieve Haruno Sakura." He threw a scroll at Shikamaru. "Shikamaru will lead. There are more details inside, but the gist of it is that I think I've figured out where she is."

"How? I can't sense her chakra anywhere, even with my Rinnegan," Sasuke admitted.

"I've turned the most classified archives inside-out. Based on what information you and Naruto gave me, I found that there have been scarce records of strange, unexplained gravitational phenomena occurring in various regions of the world long ago, most likely done by people who could manipulate dark matter and dark energy just like Hotaru can. Along with more evidence, societies with more advanced knowledge on Space and astronomy have postulated the existence of a parallel universe residing next to our own and the existence of people who can do such things _in_ that universe."

"And... and you're saying that Sakura is... _there_?" Naruto asked for them all, with a incredulous look on his face.

"Basically, yes." Kakashi closed his eyes. "Sasuke, considering the space-time abilities of your Rinnegan, I'm thinking you can open a portal just like you can open a portal to another dimension. However, it may consume even more chakra than your average dimensional portal..."

"I won't be able to pinpoint where she exactly is," Sasuke pointed out.

"Ah, but you should be able to feel mass amounts of the same type of chakra Hotaru was using congregated around a celestial body. Prioritize transporting to the planet first, and then use the time you will spend looking for Sakura to rejuvenate your chakra."

Sasuke nodded.

"Alright. Everyone, meet on the roof." And everyone cleared the room in a blur.

On the rooftop of Hokage Tower, Kakashi stood a little ways behind the four shinobi. Sasuke closed his eyes and blocked out his surroundings, concentrating extremely hard. He searched for the presence of that strange chakra he encountered the night before.

And he felt it, in the faint corner of his mind, amalgamated altogether in one place. Before he could try and create a portal, Ino burst through the door to the rooftop and was breathing heavily.

"Sai! You better come back alive, or I will be _so mad_! You too Shikamaru! And Naruto! Sasuke! And Naruto, if you don't come back, poor hospitalized Hinata will be devastated! So all of you, please come back alive and in one piece!"

They all nodded their heads once in affirmative.

Using his Rinnegan and using the majority of his chakra, he manipulated the space-time continuum to open up a direct portal to the planet that housed the peculiar chakra.

"Let's go save Sakura-chan!" Naruto declared, and the four shinobi jumped right in.

* * *

"I don't have the necessary materials and ingredients to make that medicine from before," Sakura bluntly stated. She had been carried by Hotaru and settled onto a bed of rock with minimal blankets piled onto it and was uncomfortable by the way his hand lingered on her bare thigh a few seconds longer than necessary. She wished she could retie her tattered yukata to the way it had been before the fight. He stood before her.

"You will heal me with your chakra," he replied.

"You say that so easily, but I don't know if it's even possible. I went a _week_ without figuring out how to use my chakra to help your disease. I had to resort to mixing herbs, and even then I wasn't quite sure what I was doing."

"You will heal me with your chakra," he repeated, "because I know you will be able to do it."

Sakura thickly swallowed and looked away, staring instead at the table filled with miscellaneous glass tubes, papers, and tools situated in the middle of the cavern-like room.

"You'll need to take these chakra restraints off of my arms, then."

"I will only loosen their strength, so you can use a minimal amount of chakra."

"That'll take an extremely long time, you know."

"I am patient."

"Sasuke-kun will come find me in that time."

Hotaru's face unpleasantly twitched at his name, "Why do you think so highly of such a man?"

Sakura looked down at her bound hands.

"Because... he kept his promise. He came back to me, and he will always keep coming back to me."

Hotaru closed his eyes and took a seat beside Sakura on the bed. She scooted away from him, but apparently not far away enough because he grabbed her wrists and she felt some of her chakra return to circulating normally within her body.

"Heal me. If you try anything funny, I will immediately return to Konoha and pound it to the ground."

Sakura gulped. She could try and slice his throat, sever a major artery, or even internally damage an organ. But the fear that he wouldn't die an instant death ran high, and she couldn't risk Konoha's destruction for a failed attempt at taking this insane man's life.

So she put a hand to his chest, pumping the minuscule amount chakra she was allowed to use and scanned his lungs. He stared at her working face with half-lidded eyes, lulled by the healing green glow of her hand—it reminded him of the light of the insects he loved so much.

Suddenly, he was overcome with intense desire, partly out of his attraction to her and partly because somewhere deep in his mind he was afraid that the man Sakura held feelings for would come for them, for her, just as she claimed. He reached out, first enclosing her wrist with his hand, shutting off her chakra allowance and then using his other hand to release the hair that had been dangerously falling out of its updo. Her soft hair cascaded down her shoulders. His eyes grew hungrier by the second.

"H-hey, what are you—"

He shoved her down onto the bed, caging her in between his arms.

* * *

Sasuke, Naruto, Sai, and Shikamaru braced themselves as they fell through the portal into a gray world of rocky terrain and little vegetation. The gravity on this planet was a lot more intense than on Earth, but all of the shinobi except Sasuke were able to land gracefully, as Sasuke now had barely enough chakra to stand upright even under Earth's gravitational conditions. He tumbled onto the ground and winced.

Shikamaru, observing this, made an executive decision. "We camp here until Sasuke recharges." Everyone nodded at the leader's order.

"I'm fine, let's go," Sasuke commanded, bolting into an upright position.

Shikamaru sighed in irritation, "Sasuke, don't argue with me and just do what's best for you, everyone here, and most importantly, Sakura. The portal took too much of your chakra, and you know that better than we do. We need you _fully functional_ to defeat this guy."

"... Fine," Sasuke conceded with great reluctance.

"Uh, hey guys..." Naruto interrupted.

"What is it, Naruto?"

Shikamaru and Sasuke turned around, and immediately noticed what Naruto and Sai were staring wide-eyed at.

"What the hell is _that_?!"

* * *

Sakura couldn't help but let out a small scream, and her hand flew to pull down the bottom of her yukata over as much skin on her legs as she possibly could. She wasn't ready for that! She was still pure! She had been saving herself for... for...

"Sorry," he muttered, and pushed himself off of her, "I will wait until our wedding night, when we consummate our marriage." He had nearly lost his self-control.

Sakura shot back up, breathing heavily and heart pounding against the wall of her chest.

Hoping to get her mind of what had just transpired, Hotaru walked over to one of the walls. There was a seal placed near the top. He injected some chakra into it, and peeled it off. A door revealed in its place, and he once again used chakra to slide it open.

"Would you like to see the outside?"

Sakura remained silent, unsure of what to say. It wasn't as if she could simply walk over there either; the restraints bound both of her ankles together so she couldn't walk on her own.

He walked back to her, and lifted her into his arms. She stiffened. Ignoring her action's implications, he took her back to the open door and stepped out. When Sakura looked around, she noticed that the outside of this world was just as dreary as Hotaru's room.

But when her eyes landed on what was in front of her, her jaw dropped and she inhaled sharply in shock.

There, in the far-off distance, stood a tree, with a girth that stretched as wide as the horizon and a height that seemingly reached the heavens. One gigantic _something_ was sprouting from the leaves high in the sky.

Hotaru smiled, "That's our Shinju—our _God Tree._ "

* * *

 **A/N: I have no idea the extent to which Sasuke can use the Deva Path, but I'm assuming he can't really throw people around like Nagato/Pain could. And Hotaru's gravitational powers are slightly different. IDK DON'T HATE ME, THIS WAS ALL FOR THE PLOT NO JUTSU OKAY? Sasuke can use so many different jutsus and techniques I can't keep track of all of them :| I am also not an astrophysicist by any means, so I pretty much have to Wikipedia all this shit about dark matter and dark energy (although I really didn't do anything with it yet). Also Naruto being the rational one makes me laugh.**


	4. Synergy

**All of you make me cry, WELP :')**

 **I can't believe you all love this story even though I'm not that proud of it at all. Here is the penultimate chapter. I love you all so much, you don't even know.**

 **I don't own Naruto**

* * *

Sasuke's right eye stared at the campfire's orange flames lazily licking the air. He rested against a boulder, left leg extended while his right arm was propped up on his right knee. To anyone who didn't know Sasuke, it would seem as if he was calmly lost in thought. But Naruto knew Sasuke, probably more than anyone but Sasuke himself. And at that moment, he knew with one glance that Sasuke was anything but calm.

"Sasuke," Naruto cautiously treaded. Shikamaru and Sai eyed them warily. Sasuke's eyes narrowed, but he said nothing.

"She's strong," Naruto reassured, more to himself than his best friend. Sasuke looked away.

"She'll be fine," he continued, "She's the scariest person I know." This time, Sasuke abruptly stood and stalked off, limping and settling a little ways from the rest of the group.

Naruto sighed and rested his chin in his hand, shaking his knee up and down. He was anxious to save her just as much as Sasuke! After all, she was his other best friend. Hell, he had been ready to ignore Shikamaru's orders and go find her himself! But he realized that this was probably something Sasuke needed to do. After all, he clearly remembered just how agonizing it had been for _him_ when Hinata was taken by Toneri.

While observing Naruto, Shikamaru's lips curved upward slightly. To be honest, Shikamaru had been a little more afraid of Naruto's antics over Sasuke's. He realized Naruto could be mature when he wanted to back on the mission to the moon, but he also knew how strong Naruto and Sakura's friendship was and was afraid his stubbornness would shine through.

"Thanks, Naruto." Shikamaru was grateful that Naruto took it upon himself to see that Sasuke didn't become irrational.

"Huh? For what?"

"... Nevermind. Anyway, we should all get some sleep," Shikamaru added while eyeing the darkened sky.

"Good idea, it looks like we'll need all the rest we can get," Sai emerged from a few boulders, having just scouted the area. He had deemed this area (and maybe even this entire planet) devoid of any living creatures. Sasuke didn't care to react, as Sai was obviously referring to him.

Shikamaru and Sai lied down near the fire, soaking in its heat.

Naruto yawned, stretched, and sprawled on the hard terrain. He looked on at the ginormous tree looming gloomily in the distance. Just what in the world was its purpose? He felt uneasy. His eyes then slid down to Sasuke's back and worry etched into his brows. When will he regain his strength? Naruto knew Sasuke wouldn't be able to recharge his full Rinnegan powers for a long time after using it to open the portal. Would he be strong enough to defeat whatever they'll be up against? Strong enough to help Sakura?

"Naruto." Sasuke spoke for the first time that evening, his back still turned to him.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

"I didn't even _say_ anything!"

 _Thank you._

* * *

"God tree?"

Sakura was speechless. She had only ever heard of the Shinju's existence on Earth—the tree grown from the blood of mankind, bearing one fruit of unimaginable power per millennium.

As if he heard her thoughts, Hotaru said, "Yes. There are many God Trees that exist in multiple dimensions and times. The fruit of this one is finally ripening; we will be able to consume it soon. And then, we will obtain inconceivable power and glory..."

Sakura remembered that Kaguya herself had eaten the fruit of Earth's Shinju. And she had seen how Kaguya ended up.

Fucking _psychotic_.

"No," Sakura breathed, refusing to ever let power corrupt her soul. Hotaru let out a slightly irritated sigh.

"The Earth's shinju is incomparable to the powers of many others. This one is stronger by a vast margin. This was cultivated by the blood of my brethren and my people. The earth's shinju grew from the blood of thousands during times of war? Well here, it has fed on the blood of the billions who've once populated this planet. Its power is unexplainable by words."

"I will never involve myself in an idiotic idea like that!"

"You simply don't understand. You will with time."

"How could I?" Sakura demanded. "True power isn't obtained just by eating some fruit off of a stupid tree."

Otherwise Kaguya would have won their battle.

Hotaru frowned, baring his teeth and gritting them in frustration.

"Why can't you understand?! With this power we can erase all the evil from this Universe, and start a new world, the _perfect_ world!"

Sakura looked away, bangs shadowing her eyes. Her mouth was pulled into a grim line. Why did this man so badly want power? He was almost like Sasuke when he fell to darkness nearly a decade ago...

Hotaru continued, "I will wipe away all beings in the Universe. I will purge sin and we will start mankind anew, father and mother to a superior race."

Sakura could feel the anger bubbling inside of her chest. But she decided it wasn't worth reasoning anything with Hotaru at the moment, saving her words for when she got the chance to pulverize this alien.

"Come, now. Sleep for the night and we will continue our deeds tomorrow." He carried her back to the bed, gently setting her down. The door melded with the wall once more and Hotaru fixed the seal that had been on it before. Deciding to give her some space, he himself settled a little ways from her on the ground and rested against the wall.

Sakura pretended to sleep. She knew Hotaru was watching her, so she lied still and evened out her breathing, choosing to think about her friends. Even if she managed to kill Hotaru, how would she return to Earth? She didn't have any special space-time jutsu or powers. All she could do was believe that her friends would find a way to get to her. She knew they would.

After what felt like an eternity of lying still, Sakura finally drifted off in the early morning hours.

* * *

For the rest of the week, Sasuke and the team didn't travel very far from where they initially landed. Instead, they focused on acclimating to the new atmosphere and training under these new environmental conditions. During this time, Sasuke kept his Rinnegan eye shut, which helped speed up the recharging process.

Shikamaru also relayed his strategy during this period of time.

He had decided that it would be best for him and Sasuke to retrieve Sakura, while Naruto and Sai destroyed the enormous fruit hanging off of the ominous tree. If his thinking was correct, Shikamaru deduced that the fruit held fearsome powers, and they would need to prevent anybody from consuming it.

And so the four went on, revising and re-revising their plan while preparing to fight.

On the sixth morning since their arrival on the desolate planet Sasuke felt power surge through himself once more. He felt strong enough to take Sakura back, and he couldn't waste anymore time.

He called out to his teammates.

"I'm ready," he declared. Shikamaru nodded.

"Alright. We execute Plan A as soon as Sasuke locates Sakura." Naruto hadn't been able to use his Sennin Mode due to the lack of life and therefore lack of nature energy in this world. Sasuke, on the other hand, could still detect chakra with his Rinnegan.

"When you're ready, Sasuke."

Sasuke gave a curt nod of affirmation and stood still for a moment. Then, his left eye shot open, revealing the rings of his purple eye. The six commas weren't back because he wasn't fully recharged, but he didn't care. His head snapped in the northwest direction, toward a far away rocky cliff.

"There!" Without wasting a second, the four shinobi flew off with a blur.

After running as a group for a bit, Naruto and Sai branched off in the direction of the tree.

Sasuke's eyes were fixated on the cliff with anticipation.

* * *

Sakura lost track of how long she had been held in this room for. If she cooperated, Hotaru had let her rest whenever she was tired and fed her at random times, so it was difficult to gauge when the day started or ended. Ever since she began "healing" him, she stalled the healing process as much as she could. She used some of the little chakra she was allowed to temporarily relieve some of the effects of his unknown ailment, enough so that he believed there was progress. However, without the proper tools and resources, there really wasn't much else she could do. She had taken mental notes of especially weak areas in his body. The remaining chakra she had left was slowly being gathered at her wrists and ankles, in a bastardized manner of how she obtained her Byakugou no In.

 _Talk about deja vu_ , Sakura bitterly thought while remembering her time being held captive by Kido. Except this circumstance was just a bit more dire than the last.

Just a bit.

Sakura estimated she had been inside this cave for about a week or so. That meant she had been storing chakra little by little for that long.

 _Then it should be about time..._

Sakura tested her strength against one shackle, careful to avoid making obvious noises. It was one of the rare moments she found Hotaru actually sleeping. She smiled.

 _All right, here goes nothing!_

With a heave, Sakura yanked her hands and feet apart as hard as she could, and the restraints that bound them together snapped and shattered to the floor. Almost immediately, she felt her suppressed chakra flood out of her core and throughout her body.

" _YOSHAA!"_

Hotaru's eyes snapped open but before he could react, Sakura punched him so hard that his body broke through the seal on the door and demolished the entire wall of the cave. He flew over the cliff, knocked out of breath and momentarily stunned. Sakura, taking advantage of this, sprinted and threw herself over the edge as well and grabbed a hold of his throat.

With a heavy cry and Sakura tried to swing one more punch at him right before they rammed into the ground, as the heavier gravity of this planet made them fall at an alarmingly fast rate. Unfortunately for Sakura, Hotaru managed to come to his senses and wave a hand seal. Her punch was basically nullified mid-air as the gravity around them disappeared. He gasped for air.

Unfortunately for Hotaru, however, one Sasuke Uchiha appeared right below the two. And he was filled with rage.

Sasuke jumped upwards and grabbed Sakura's arm and pulled her off of the alien.

"Hold on!" He ordered, and Sakura complied, quickly wrapping her arms around his neck.

" _Chidori!_ "

The surrounding air was deafened with the sound of a thousand chirping birds. He slammed the lightning jutsu into Hotaru's back. He flew a good twenty feet back, but whether he was unconscious or dead Sasuke didn't know and he didn't really care at the moment. He secured Sakura with his arm and landed with a boom, as rock and debris rained around them.

Sakura was at a loss for words. She stared at Sasuke while they were still essentially embracing each other.

"S-Sa- I- what? How did you-!"

"It doesn't look like you're hurt," Sasuke briefly assessed, his visible eye softening. Sakura knew this was his way of asking, _are you okay?_

"Y-yeah, I'm fine. Thank you."

He nodded. Looking down straight at her, he added, "You did well, Sakura."

All of a sudden Sakura felt weak at the knees.

"Looks like I wasn't really needed..." Shikamaru ran in on the scene, surveying the damage done by the pair. "Jeez. I really ought to report you for not following my orders and going on ahead, Sasuke," he sighed, "but you're lucky this turned out well."

"Shikamaru too? Wait, how did you guys get here?"

"We'll save the explanations after we've helped Naruto and Sai take care of business on their end. Are you two going to stay like that forever?" One of Shikamaru's brows rose.

Sakura suddenly realized that Sasuke's arm was still wrapped around her waist while hers were around his neck. She immediately jumped back, red dusting her cheeks.

"A-Ah! Yeah! Naruto and Sai, okay. What are they doing?"

"They've gone to get rid of that fruit and tree. I figured with Naruto's power they should both be able to do it."

"Alright, well what are we waiting for? Let's go!" She took off toward the looming plant and the other two followed.

Unbeknownst to them, the beaten Hotaru who was sprawled on the ground clenched his hand into a fist. Watching the trio's retreating backs he growled.

"I'm not done yet!"

Placing his hand down, hundreds upon hundreds of humanoid stone creatures started to form from the ground .

* * *

Naruto and Sai raced at full force.

"So, all I gotta do is hit the thing with a powered up Rasengan, right?"

"Basically, yes."

"LET'S DO THIS! KURAMA!" With the Kyuubi's chakra cloaking him, Naruto began charging a Rasengan with the bijuu chakra.

Sai drew multiple winged beasts from his scroll, and they flew on ahead to hold the swaying fruit in place.

"Naruto!" A faint, female voice far behind them yelled. Naruto turned his head back. He saw Sakura running with Sasuke and Shikamaru toward them!

"Sakura-chan! You're safe!"

"More importantly, we got company!" And Naruto saw that further behind them were... a giant army of giant stone statues chasing after them.

"Change of plans, Naruto, Sai! Naruto, we need your clones to help defeat these things! Sasuke and Sakura will take care of the tree instead!" Shikamaru shouted as he engaged in combat.

"Alright!" Naruto skidded as he did an abrupt one-eighty. Sai followed closely. Naruto threw his charged Rasengan into a group of enemies as Sasuke and Sakura ran past. He gave them an affirmative nod and performing his infamous hand seal, he shouted, "TAJUU, KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!"

And there was a chain of never-ending puffs of smoke as a thousand Narutos materialized.

"LET'S GO!" It was war.

* * *

Sasuke and Sakura sprinted toward the tree. Sasuke was surprised to see her keeping up so well with him even while her bare feet were scraping up from the sharp rocks. The corner of his lips turned upward in pride.

"Do you have any ideas?" Sakura asked, still focused on the tree and eyes narrowing.

"A few. There's one jutsu I've only used once before..." Sakura leaned in and nodded as Sasuke explained his plan.

"Got it!"

Sasuke nodded and his Mangekyo Sharingan bled into his right eye.

" _Amaterasu!_ "

As the black flames shot into the sky, it didn't take long for the air current to swiftly change. Soon enough, rumbles of thunder could be could be heard overhead. With a little manipulation, Sakura could see striking flashes of lightning occur against the dark storm clouds as well.

As they neared the tree, rain drizzled down, eventually evolving into a pouring rainstorm.

"Sakura, get ready!"

"Right!"

As they braved the final stretch of distance, Sasuke rose his hand to the heavens. The storm became even more vicious, as lightning violently clashed against each other.

Sakura, on the other hand, concentrated as much chakra as she could into her right fist. Her hand glowed a bright blue.

"Sakura, _now!_ "

" _SHANNARO_!" And the surrounding vicinity brutally quaked as Sakura managed to fracture this tree that was taller, thicker, and wider than multiple skyscraper buildings combined.

Wasting no time, she propelled herself off of the trunk back to Sasuke as he brought his hand down.

" _Kirin!_ " A savage bolt of lightning struck the entire tree, holding enough electricity to finish what Sakura started and cleaved it down the middle. The huge fruit that was growing from it disintegrated.

Sasuke stopped Amaterasu. The rain ceased and the storm clouds dissipated slowly.

Sakura breathed heavily, having used almost all of her chakra for that attack. She collapsed onto her butt and laughed nervously.

"Is it over?"

Sasuke looked at her and saw her tattered state of dress. Unclasping his cloak, he knelt down and gently draped it over her shoulders.

"Th-thanks."

And suddenly a painfully familiar voice interrupted. "My, how touching this is." The two whipped their heads and saw Hotaru rising from the remains of the tree.

"What are you doing here?!" Sakura blurted. He should have been down from Sasuke's Chidori earlier!

"Do not underestimate me, _Sakura_. Although you managed to put an end to my Shinju, you failed to notice that I had already taken a bite of the fruit before it was destroyed." Sakura's eyes widened in shock.

"Wait! Your body, it isn't well enough to take control over the powers!"

"I DON'T CARE ANYMORE! All I care about now, is PULVERIZING HIM!" With godlike speed, Hotaru appeared in front of Sasuke. Sasuke barely managed to unsheathed his sword to block a wave of gravity thrown at him. He skidded backwards.

Observing Hotaru carefully, Sasuke saw him sign another hand seal. Quickly, Sasuke activated his Rinnegan and managed to switch places with rocky debris. The place he had been standing not even a second before was pummeled.

But Sasuke himself was nearly a god-level shinobi, and he knew it. He smirked. Perfect, he'd faced the likes of Madara and Kaguya. If he thought about it calmly, Hotaru was just fodder for his long list of defeated enemies. He pumped chakra into his Rinnegan. Using his renown speed, Sasuke manipulated his eye's space-time capabilities in order to quickly shift around Hotaru, trapping him in his own circle.

He was too fast for the naked eye. Hotaru whipped his head about, confused and disoriented. This was not only the result of Sasuke's strategy but the power of the fruit taking control of his body. Gradually, he lost his senses. Frustrated, he was about to perform another jutsu, but Sasuke took this slight opening as a chance to cleanly slice both of his arms off at the elbows. The limbs squished grotesquely as they hit the ground. Sakura grimaced from her position.

Hotaru started forward, eyes hysterical at the sight of his own arms detached from his body.

"What... WHAT DID YOU DO?!" And suddenly Sasuke and Sakura were pressed flat on the ground, as Hotaru slammed tons of gravitational force throughout the entire area without the use of his hands.

Sasuke gritted his teeth in pain. He thought he got rid of those annoying arms so Hotaru wouldn't use those stupid powers! As his Rinnegan weakened, Sasuke instead chose to activate his Mangekyo Sharingan.

" _Su...sa..noo!"_ He managed to bite out. At once, his purple humanoid armor of chakra engulfed him and struggled to get up against this gravity.

Hotaru laughed, clearly a different person than before.

"It's futile... I will kill you, right now!" He flew with a burst toward Sasuke and hit Susanoo full force with gravity. The Susanoo faltered but still stood its ground, fighting against the alien and his power. But Sasuke could see the armor of chakra breaking piece by piece, and he knew it wouldn't be long before Hotaru broke through.

Until he saw Sakura come up behind him.

Sakura had been relegated to being a spectator between Sasuke and Hotaru. Damnit, she should've been fighting too! But once she saw Sasuke's Susanoo losing power, she knew she had no other choice but to do something herself. So, she gathered whatever chakra she had left and fought the tons of force pressing down on her, enough so she could sneak up on Hotaru without being detected. He was preoccupied with Sasuke, after all.

"You're dead," she heard Hotaru snidely remark.

Sasuke smirked, despite his perilous situation.

"No, _you're_ dead."

Sakura took that as her cue. With her remaining strength, she snapped a kick through the heavy air and heard a sickening crack as the bones in Hotaru's neck were displaced. All at once, the atmosphere lightened tenfold and she could finally breathe once more. Hotaru's body slackened, and she pushed it out of the way. She could hardly stand, so she let herself fall over. Into Sasuke's open arm.

Sakura felt like she wanted to cry, like a baby. Not because of any overwhelming emotion, but because she was so damn exhausted. But instead a puff of laughter escaped her lips and she felt herself shake as she rested her chin on Sasuke's shoulder. She heard Sasuke smirk once more.

"Now... it's over."

They stayed like that for a bit, until a struggled breath resounded from a few feet away from them. Sasuke and Sakura's eyes widened and they looked at Hotaru's body. He wasn't dead yet?!

"W-why... doesn't... any-... under..stan..."

Sasuke helped Sakura up and together they limped to the defeated man. Sakura closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"You said you wanted to 'purge' this Universe of sin and evil. You wanted to start a race of 'perfect' beings. Let me tell you something. No matter what you do, there will always be people who fall to sin. There will always be just as much evil as good. So instead of trying to build a perfect world, we just have to improve the one we live in now. And that's what we're here for," Sakura looked at Sasuke this time, "to help our friends who fall to get back up on their feet. And this is the most rewarding."

"..." Hotaru looked up at Sakura, and she could see the life in him diminishing.

"Ah... I see now... why you... care so much about... him... Sa..ku.." Like a dead candle, the remaining light vanished from his eyes. Sakura wasn't sure she believed in anything religious, but she sent a short prayer to the heavens anyway.

"I hope you are able to reunite with your family and friends."

When she finished, Sasuke nudged her.

"We need to meet up with the others."

"Right." And without a second glance backward, the two started the trek back to the other battlefield.

* * *

"I think this is the last of them!" Shikamaru shouted, referring to a group of about twenty or thirty stone statues.

Sai had been injured not long before, and Shikamaru had just put him aside in a safe zone while Naruto held off the army with his own squad of kage bunshin.

"Naruto, follow up! Kagemane no Jutsu!" It took Shikamaru's last chakra reserves to pull off trapping the rest of the creatures in his shadow.

A group of Narutos jumped in the air, each one sporting a regular Rasengan. There were many cries of "Rasengan!" and only dust remained afterward.

Shikamaru fell over, drained. He was sprawled on the ground and he stared up at the blank, dreary sky, sighing.

"No clouds..." He closed his eyes and drifted out of consciousness. Naruto bounded over and wordlessly help him up, dragging him next to their other comrade.

"Now to find the other two," he muttered. He really hated that his Sennin chakra was rendered useless here.

However, Naruto didn't need to look far, as he saw the outlines of two figures in the far distance. He brightened instantly.

"OIIIII! SASUKE! SAKURA-CHAN!" He took off, an endless ball of energy happily reuniting with his original team. When he got to them, he didn't hesitate to support Sasuke with one arm and Sakura with his other.

"Mission accomplished guys! Let's go home!" He raced back to where Shikamaru and Sai were resting.

"Naruto, I can't." Sasuke bluntly stated as Naruto helped him down next to Sakura.

Naruto and Sakura tilted their heads in question.

"What?"

"My Rinnegan is too weak now. We'll have to wait until it fully recuperates."

Naruto gasped, "WHAT! It took you a week to recharge it, and even then it wasn't _fully_ recharged!"

"The problem is, even if we set up camp here, we don't have the supplies to last us long."

"Nuh uh, no way bastard. I am going home to my wife NOW and I will do anything if it means going back to Konoha."

This gave Sasuke an idea.

"Say, how much chakra do you have left?"

Naruto put a thoughtful finger on his chin. "Hmmm, I'd say a lot, since I didn't use any Sennin jutsu."

Sasuke closed his left eye. "I think I can get us to Konoha. But you'd have to be the fuel, Naruto."

"All right! Count me in!"

Sasuke stood back up and placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder. Opening his left eye, he willed a portal to open a path straight to the familiar village.

"Hurry, get in!"

Sakura dragged in Shikamaru and Sai, and Naruto and Sasuke jumped in right after her.

* * *

It was a normal morning for Konoha in the market streets. Everyone was bustling about, doing their daily dinner shopping or haggling prices. Doting grandparents bought toys for their grandchildren, kids bought cheap candy from friendly vendors, and the vendors themselves called out to potential customers. The day was sunny, the skies clear. It wasn't boiling hot out, and there was a nice breeze wafting through the village here and there.

And suddenly, a black hole ripped open right above their heads as five unconscious shinobi were vomited out of it and dumped unceremoniously onto the ground.

A few of the women screamed in shock and the streets quickly cleared, wary of the people who fell from the sky. Everyone seemed confused until one vendor pointed out, "Hey... isn't that Naruto and Sasuke?!"

This didn't help the situation at all, as people began to panic that their revered war heroes were apparently dead.

* * *

Kakashi sat at his desk, anxiously awaiting news. It had been a very long time, about two months, since Team Shikamaru's departure. Kakashi knew time flowed differently in other dimensions and on other planets, but he was skeptical it would take this long for them to complete the mission. What if something had gone wrong?

He sighed and absentmindedly took the top sheet off of a mountain of paperwork invading his desk. Skimming the contents but not really paying attention, he stamped his seal of approval on the bottom.

"Hokage-sama! There's trouble!" His head shot to the door as his expression hardened. His assistant burst through the door. She took a minute to catch her breath.

"Naruto... they're back!"

* * *

The first thing Sakura registered was pain. Her body ached with it. She groaned, and turned over in her bed. Bed? She took a moment to come to her senses. When she opened her eyes, she saw the familiar white colors of the hospital.

"Sakura-chan! You're awake!" Sakura's eyes slid over to her neighboring patient.

"Naruto?"

He sheepishly laughed and scratched his head, "Ahahaha. Yeah, case of severe chakra exhaustion. Opening a portal really drains you... I don't know how Sasuke did it the first time."

"I have the Rinnegan. It's easier for me to optimize the chakra use," a new voice cut in. Sakura looked over her other shoulder and Sasuke was in the bed on her other side. Sakura took a moment to look between the two boys, who began to banter if the utilization of chakra was better than just having a whole bunch of it to use and then she threw head back into her pillow.

"We're safe... I'm so glad," she whispered.

A couple short knocks came from the door, and it slid open to reveal a midnight haired beauty.

"Hinata!" Naruto cheerily smiled. He lept out of his bed and embraced the young woman. She squeaked as he lifted her off the ground and twirled around.

"Quit it, Naruto, or else she'll need her own hospital bed!" Sakura reprimanded. Naruto stopped twirling but still had her wrapped in a hug.

"I just heard that you returned, and I came as fast as I could. I'm so glad you're not hurt. I'm so glad that you're safe too, Sakura-san." Hinata sniffled.

"Thank you, Hinata."

"Hey, Hinata, is it just me, or did you put on some weight while I was gone?"

SMACK. Sakura threw her pillow at Naruto full force.

"Don't be rude!" But Hinata's belly did seem considerably rounder than before... oh. Oh. OH.

"Oh my goodness. Hinata could it be—!"

Hinata smiled serenely, "Yes Sakura-san, it is. Naruto-kun, I must tell you some amazing news."

Naruto lit up, "Does Ichiraku have a new flavor of ramen?"

"Well, no, but—"

"—OH! Is Kakashi passing the hat to me so soon?!"

"No, dear. Not that."

"I got it! YakinikuQ has ramen on their menu now!"

Hinata laughed.

"Moron, you've got your spawn inside of her stomach," Sasuke interrupted, clearly having had enough of Naruto's obliviousness.

"IDIOT, of course I know tha—" Naruto froze.

"Well, that isn't exactly the way I would put it, but yes, Naruto-kun. Sasuke-kun is right. I am... pregnant."

Naruto still didn't move. Hinata's smile slid into a frown with worry.

"Dear, is everything alright? Oh no, don't tell me you're upset?"

"I'm... I'm gonna be a dad?" Hinata nodded, unsure of his reaction.

Suddenly, Naruto's mouth twitched up into the widest grin Sakura had ever seen.

"I'm gonna be a dad!" Hinata let out a breath of relief.

"SAKURA-CHAN, DID YOU HEAR THAT? I'M GONNA BE A DAD!"

"Congratulations, Naruto!"

"BASTARD, DID YOU HEAR? I'M GONNA BE A DAD!"

"Yeah, yeah."

"HINATA, WHAT ARE WE STILL WAITING HERE FOR? WE NEED TO GO PREPARE THE BABY'S ROOM!" Naruto snatched Hinata by the hand and sprinted out the door. Sakura cringed as she could almost hear him dragging the poor woman around as he shouted to anyone who would listen, "I'm gonna be a dad!"

"HEY! YOU HAVEN'T BEEN DISCHARGED YET!" Sakura could feel a comical sweat drop forming as a nurse yelled at Naruto down the hallway.

Sakura lied back down and sighed.

"I am happy for them," she smiled. Sasuke didn't say a word as he looked at her.

After a moment, he opened his mouth to say something but Sakura didn't find out as another person stepped into the room. This time, a wild bush of gray hair and his signature mask and smiling eyes.

"Ah, sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to see the faces of my lovely students."

"Kakashi-sensei!"

"I'm glad you are safe Sakura. You too, Sasuke. I was getting worried."

"Thank you, Sensei."

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have a date with my paperwork. Sakura, I expect to see you in my office later. Carry on, you two."

"Bye!" Sakura called after him. "So what were you saying, Sasu— woah!" As Sakura turned to look back at Sasuke, he had gotten up and knelt beside her bed. Their faces were unnaturally close and she immediately felt her cheeks heat up.

"Sakura."

"Y-yes?" She all but meeped.

"No more interruptions. No more 'help' from Ino or Naruto. I am doing this my way."

"Okay...?" Sakura was extremely confused.

"After the war on the day I left, I did this," Sasuke brought his two fingers and lightly tapped her diamond seal, "because I didn't feel worthy enough to do anything more."

Sakura felt her heart stop.

"But you don't know that on that day, I wanted to do this instead because I do return them. Your... feelings..."

Sasuke gently cupped her face and pulled her forward. When his parted lips met Sakura's tense ones her core exploded into millions of tingles throughout her body and all she could do at the moment was widen her eyes as wide as they could possibly go. Sasuke was watching her expression, cautious to continue but desiring to.

 _Sakura, you idiot! DO SOMETHING!_ She screamed at herself. She slowly relaxed, closing her eyes. One of her own hands cupped his face as well, giving him the "okay." When she almost lost herself in the movement of Sasuke's lips, she abruptly remembered something and immediately pulled back.

"W-wait!"

Sasuke frowned. Did he do something wrong? Did she not want to do this anymore?

"I... I haven't showered in a week."

Sasuke smirked.

"Sakura. Shut up."

And he crawled on top of her, kissing her once more.

* * *

 **A/N: WOOHOOO! Thanks for the support, my lovelies! Watch out for the final chapter/epilogue within the next week!**

 **MY NEXT FIC IS IN PRODUCTION AS WELL! It will focus more on quality of writing and plot than length.**

 **I LOVE YOU ALL. HAPPY NEW YEAR. LEAVE A REVIEW IF YOU WISH.**


	5. Finale

(A/N): Wow… the final chapter you've all been waiting for. I didn't forget about you all, don't worry. Love you all so much. Thanks for sticking through with my first ever story. I originally wanted to post this on November 10th as the second anniversary of the Naruto manga's official end but then the American election happened and all my motivation for anything in life just like faded away lol (tbh America would've been screwed with either major party candidate, but I'll keep politics away from this website, which is a safe haven for those who wish to escape the real world hehe)

Seriously though, only you readers have given me the will to complete this, because I know you've all been waiting so patiently. Love you so much.

* * *

 _Swish. Swoop, swish._

Sasuke's sword effortlessly sliced through the air as he ran through his early morning kata in a remote area in the outskirts of the village. The stream flowed with a peaceful rhythm behind him. Integrating elaborate legwork into his form, he executed each move with precision and perfection only he could achieve without so much as breaking a sweat or breathing heavily. His dark grey training pants ever so slightly fluttered as he kicked into the empty air with his bare foot. He liked the feeling of the damp dew between his toes as he trained.

He had been at this longer than usual—a thirty minute exercise turning into a couple of hours.

After the whole Hotaru fiasco, Sasuke had been in the hospital for a good two weeks to recuperate from chakra exhaustion. He had been ordered bed rest for the whole two weeks by Tsunade (no exceptions) and was even threatened to be restrained to the hospital bed if he didn't comply. It didn't help that he was in a physical state where he could have easily been be overpowered by Tsunade, although Sasuke insisted that that wasn't true but was just following orders because Tsunade would be "annoying to deal with" otherwise. Overall, however, peace had been restored to the village and everybody fell back into the rhythm of the norm once more.

Finally being discharged from that dreadfully boring place with terrible food (seriously, how could Sakura stand _working_ there all day every day?), Sasuke felt obligated to make up for lost training time. For the past week, he had been waking and rising with the sun around five in the morning and training until dusk.

Sakura caught him on multiple occasions and berated him for not stopping for proper meals or breaks. "You're just going to land yourself in the hospital again for the same exact reason you were _just_ there for!

He knew she was right, like she usually was, so he began to heed her words first by stopping for lunch breaks at Ichiraku and then with simple food he packed for himself from his apartment. Sometimes, Sakura would drop by when she wasn't busy with her own basket of homemade food items and provide her company. They wouldn't talk much, just sit in each other's presence, quietly munching on food and enjoying the nature around them. They continued to live like this for a month.

After Sasuke and spent that night together at the hospital, it was somehow difficult for either him or her to bring it up again in conversation so they haven't mentioned it since. Their displays of affection, if anyone would call it that, stagnated to keeping each other company. It was a good routine to him, really. He wasn't used to physical affection, and Sakura was giving him the time and space he needed to sort out his feelings once and for all.

However, it looked like her company would be missed today as Sasuke abruptly came to a halt. He thrusted his sword and stopped it just a millimeter away from the throat of a generic, unrecognizable ANBU.

"Uchiha. You have been summoned to the Lord Sixth's office." The ANBU vanished as quickly as he appeared with a one-handed seal and flicker.

Lowering his sword, Sasuke let out a short breath of annoyance at being interrupted. He too flickered out of the clearing and toward the heart of Konoha. He entered the Hokage tower, a wave of nostalgia suffusing through his body as memories of every time he passed under the same entranceway to take on a mission as a twelve-year-old, young and inexperienced.

Two knocks.

"Enter."

Sasuke gracefully opened the door and stepped into the office with all the Uchiha regality and impeccable posture that have been instilled into him as a child. He stopped in front of Kakashi's desk and stuffed his hands in his dark pants' pockets, and stared at the Sixth Hokage expectantly. Kakashi rested his elbows on his desk, laced his fingers together, and slid his chin into the crevice made by his hands.

"Well?" Sasuke inquired, as if to say, _you called for me?_

"Well... Sasuke, I'm sorry to have to say this when you've been back for not even a month, but I might have to send you out of Konoha once more."

Sasuke's eyebrows knitted together in suspicion. Was there something wrong? Another threat?

Kakshi elaborated, "There have been slight unusual disturbances and blips in the magnetic field in the very north, near the borders of the Land of Earth and the Land of Iron. My intuition tells me it's interference from inter-dimensional activities. And you're the only one alive who can investigate this right now."

Sasuke's expression hardened and his hand clenched. Activities from other dimensions?

"The Gokage are convening in Konoha in three days time to discuss these recent events. I'll give you until then to think about and research what might be going on and relay the news to Naruto and Sakura."

Sasuke nodded once.

"You will leave the day after the summit. You are dismissed."

* * *

Sakura let out a shaky breath. For the past few days, Sakura felt queasy and nauseous in the mornings, to the point where she hurled the previous night's meal into the toilet. Only this morning did she finally examine herself and found with a diagnostic chakra-enhanced hand a faint life force just below her stomach.

Her other hand had been holding the toilet bowl as she kneeled in front of it. Feeling an uncomfortable urge surge from the pits of her stomach to the base of her throat, Sakura bowed to the toilet and gagged once more.

Letting out a slow, pained groan, Sakura lifted her head and her stomach churned again. But this time it wasn't from the growing life inside of her. It was from apprehension. Six weeks. It had been six weeks since she and Sasuke spent that night together. Her period had always been irregular because of her life as a kunoichi and constantly exercising and keeping in shape, so she didn't really think much of it when she missed her last two cycles. Six weeks was just around the time where morning sickness and other pregnancy symptoms started appearing after conception. She blanched.

"Oh god, what do I tell Sasuke?"

She carefully picked herself up from the floor of her bathroom and washed out the acidic taste in her mouth, and made her way to her bed and plopped down. She was still in disbelief.

A life. A human life. Growing inside of her. This fetus will eventually turn into a baby; her baby. Her child. Sasuke's child.

She couldn't help it as a sob escaped her throat. It's not that she didn't want this baby; of course she would love any child of hers with all of her heart and soul. But would Sasuke? They couldn't even have a proper relationship and suddenly she's pregnant? What if he didn't even want to be with her in the end? She gave him space after they acted on their fleeting desires. She waited for him to come to her on his own terms. But he had done nothing except accepting her presence.

Sakura thought about keeping her pregnancy silent from him. She couldn't burden him with this responsibility if he didn't want it, if he wasn't ready for it. Not to mention, he could hit the road any moment too.

She retracted those thoughts as soon as they came into her head. No, she _had_ to tell him. He had the right to know. But Sakura also didn't want to ruin whatever relationship she thought they had.

She fiercely wiped her tears. If it was for the sake of her child, _their_ child, she had to be brave and ready to face any trial. Even if it meant raising their child alone.

Sakura gathered herself and took three deep breaths. She glanced at the clock and realized she was late for work but oddly didn't feel any rush. Her stomach churned, not because of the morning sickness, but because of what she would do from here on out. What and how would she tell Sasuke?

She quickly changed into her casual clothes and left her apartment.

When she reached the hospital, Sakura clocked into her shift a little late. She sunk into her chair at her desk in her office, still a little dazed.

The little square intercom on her desk beeped once, sharp and high pitched. Sakura jumped. She would never get used to all of this technology...

Pressing the flashing button, she cleared her throat and spoke into the speakers, "Yes?"

"Haruno-sensei, Uzumaki-san is ready for her check-up." Ah, right. She was supposed to see Hinata today.

"I'll come get her."

* * *

The first thing Sasuke did when he left Kakashi's office was to go find Naruto. He decided to go to Naruto first because Naruto was so predictable in his reactions. And if anyone, Naruto was the one person who deserved to hear first if Sasuke was going to leave the village. He spent the whole way to the Uzumaki residence in contemplation of how he would bring this up.

In front of the Uzumaki's door, he paused right before he was about to knock as the door flung open.

"Oh, hey Sasuke! What's up?"

"Naruto. Going somewhere?" Sasuke had always cursed Naruto's terrible timing, and this seemed to be exactly one of those times.

"Yeah, gonna go meet up with Iruka-sensei to talk about politics, dattebayo!" Naruto marched past him.

"... I will never get use to hearing you say things like this," Sasuke muttered.

Naruto turned around. "Huh? You say somethin'?"

"I said, the Five Kage Summit will occur in Konoha in three days time. I need to tell you... and Sakura something there."

"What? What is it?" Naruto's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

Sasuke's eyes hardened, "About why I need to leave again for the sake of the village."

"Oh, sure! I'll be the- wait, what did you just say?"

"I... I need to leave the village again."

"... WHAT?!"

"Don't make me repeat myself."

"But, but WHY, you JUST got back!"

"You _know_ it wasn't for forever."

"I know, but still, ugh, why does it have to be you who has to leave?"

"I'm the only one who has the ability—"

"—To investigate this, yeah I understand. Man, I'm still bummed though. How long will you be gone for this time?"

"I'm not sure, but I have a feeling I'll be gone for a very, very long time."

"Well, you _better_ be here when my kid is born! I mean considering you already missed my _wedding_ of all things, I think the least you could do for me is to be here when your godchild is born!" Naruto flashed a thumbs-up.

"My _what_."

"Godchild! Better thank me to have this honor!"

Sasuke sighed, but a small smile still slipped onto his visage. "Alright, sure. Have you seen Sakura?"

"Actually, Hinata's at the hospital getting a check-up on the baby with Sakura right now!"

So Sakura was at work.

"Wait, I'm really late for my meeting! Gotta run Sasuke, your explanation better be _damn_ good or else I'm grabbing you by the ear and forcing you to stay in the village!" Naruto took off onto the nearest roof and hopped away in a blur of orange and yellow.

Sasuke scratched the back of his head and the corner of his mouth snaked upwards. Not the first time, he was thankful for a friend like Naruto, who treasured their friendship and brotherhood as one of the most important things he ever came to possess.

If he couldn't see Sakura for now, it was time for him to do some extensive research in the Uchiha archives. The Naka Shrine. Although the upper level of the shrine itself was destroyed in Pain's attack and never rebuilt, the secrets of the Uchiha still remained hidden below. He too deftly jumped onto the rooftop of Naruto's house and took off toward the deserted Uchiha district.

* * *

"Sakura-san, I have a favor to ask of you."

Sakura glanced up from her glowing green hand on Hinata's belly.

"Anything for you, Hinata."

Hinata smiled gratefully, "Well, it's just that I would like you to deliver my baby. I know all of Konoha's medics are more than capable, but I think I would feel most reassured if you do it."

Sakura let out a small noise of surprise, "Of course I'd love to, Hinata! It'd be an honor!"

"Thank you, thank you so much!"

"It's really not a problem, don't over-exaggerate!"

Hinata's eyes softened. "No really, thank you. Because I know you will be well into your own pregnancy when I go into labor."

Sakura pulled back her hand from Hinata's stomach and squeaked.

"Wh-what? How did you—!"

"I think people forget that Hyuuga eyes can see everything," Hinata huffed. _Well, almost everything_ , she amended in her head.

"Can you please keep this a secret? I would like to tell people myself. Especially Sasuke," Sakura pleaded.

"Ah, so he doesn't know yet."

"Nope, I just found out myself this morning," Sakura sighed.

"When are you going to tell him?"

"As soon as we see each other again."

"I will be rooting for you Sakura-san. I've always been."

And suddenly, Sakura's stormy nerves calmed. She wasn't alone; she never had been. She nodded. Suddenly, she felt lighter, like a weight had lifted off her shoulders. She laughed light-heartedly, like she wasn't worrying her brains out not even an hour before.

"Your baby is doing very well. It's too early to be able to tell the gender, though. I'll be able to tell in about a month or two, when the fetus's genitals have formed. Keep following your current diet and keep getting a lot of rest! I'll see you next month for your next appointment."

Hinata rose to leave. Halfway out the door she paused and gracefully turned around, hand gently on the door frame.

"Sakura-san!"

"Hm?"

"Sometimes, I felt as if Naruto-kun never noticed me even though I was trying my absolute best. At the time it might have been true. Yet without giving up, he did come to realize and recognize every single little effort I put in for myself, for him, and for us. Do your best! Although it might seem like Sasuke-kun doesn't see your effort, he definitely doesn't _not_ see it. And above all, I've seen you grow faith in yourself over these years. Don't lose it." With a wink, Hinata exited the room.

Hinata was right. What was Sakura doing? She worked so hard to become strong for herself. Not for anybody else. She could and would take on anything.

* * *

When Sakura came back to her apartment at night and flicked on her kitchen lights, she screamed when she saw Sasuke sitting at her kitchen table with his arm sitting neatly on his lap. He was in casual clothes, dark grey training pants and a simple black long sleeve shirt.

"What in the world! Why are you sitting at my table with all the lights off?!"

Sasuke ignored her and frowned. "You should really lock your door."

"A-ah, haha," Sakura sheepishly laughed, "I forget to do that, sometimes."

Forgetting she was just standing there with her stuff, Sakura put down her bag and loosened her forehead protector. She shuffled over to the stove.

"Care for a cup of tea?"

"Hn."

"Okay." She put the kettle on the stove and turned the dial to maximum heat. Sakura slid into the chair across from Sasuke. Sasuke stared at her while her eyes darted everywhere but his face and she fidgeted. After a moment of silence, Sakura blurted as Sasuke spoke.

"I need to tell you something!" and "I have to talk to you."

"O-oh! You go ahead," Sakura quickly offered. Sasuke raised his eyebrow.

"Sakura."

"Y-yes!" Her voice climbed two octaves higher and she sat straighter in her chair.

This time his eyebrows knitted together. She was acting strange.

"Come to the Gokage summit in three days. I... I'm going to leave the village again and I will tell you and Naruto the reason why in the presence of the Gokage, as they need to hear this too."

Sakura's jaw dropped.

"For... for how long?" She asked in a small voice.

"... Long."

Her fears were coming true in her head. She could already picture her child growing up without a father around. She could already see her little boy or girl asking why he or she didn't have a papa like other children.

"O-oh."

Again, silence.

"Sakura, did you have something to say?"

Sakura gulped and both of her fists tightened in her lap. "Actually, I... I'm, I'm," she squeezed her eyes shut, "pr—!"

The kettle whistled, like a high-pitched scream demanding attention. Sakura couldn't really hear the kettle though because she also basically screamed out the word and momentarily became deaf as her heart pounded within her chest and her ears rang.

When she opened her eyes, Sasuke was standing, hand hanging limp at his side, mouth slightly ajar, and visible eye wide.

They stayed like that for a minute, the tea kettle blaring in the background.

Slowly, Sasuke's countenance changed to normal and he made is way to the stove and turned it off.

"Is... is it mine?"

Sakura suddenly huffed irritably, "Of course it's yours. Who do you take me for?"

"Sorry."

"Damn straight."

"My... child." Sasuke needed to sit back down.

He was going to be a father. Him, of all people. Just like Naruto.

"Is it a boy or a girl?" He asked curiously.

"Well, I won't know until I'm about five months into the pregancy—hey, wait. You're taking this a lot more calmly than I thought."

Sasuke tilted his head in question.

"You're not mad?"

"Sakura, why the hell would I be mad?

"Look, I completely understand if you don't want to... you know, be in a relationship with me. And if it's for this baby, I will do anything in my power to raise him or her to be a good, kind-hearted, righteous person even if I have to do it alone. So I'm okay with you leaving, even though I'm not really okay, but I'm okay, I mean, I'll be okay, at least I think so—"

"Sakura, you're babbling."

"Right, sorry. It's just, um, I know we haven't talked about um, that night when we, um, y'know. But seeing as the result of that night is this, this baby I think now would be a better time to address um, whatever's going on between us rather than later and—"

" _Sakura_." Exasperation. "Is that what you've been worried about this whole time?"

Sakura gave a tiny nod.

Sasuke took a deep breath, stood, and walked over to where Sakura sat. He looked down at her.

"I know I'm inexperienced in matters concerning... love, but what I feel is genuine. That night at the hospital, the night of the festival when I gave you that flower, when I poked your forehead before I left on my journey of redemption, those were all confessions." By now, Sasuke was crouching to Sakura's sitting level.

"Confessions?"

"Sakura, I find it easier to show it than say it. But I'll say this for you now, once."

"Say... what?" Sakura finally looked into Sasuke's eye. It laid unwavering into hers.

"Sakura," he took hold of her left shoulder and leaned in, "I love you."

* * *

Gaara, the fifth Kazekage. Chōjūrō, the sixth Mizukage. Darui, the fifth Raikage. Kurotsuchi, the fourth Tsuchikage. The four kages and their respective advisors were sitting in a semicircle, gathered together before the official Gokage summit. Shikamaru, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were in the slightly dilapidated room as well. Shikamaru as Kakashi's interim advisor.

"Wheres the Hokage?" Kurotsuchi asked out loud.

"Hokage-sama had an emergency matter to attend to with the Fire Daimyo. Something about finding the daimyo's daughter a husband before Hokage-sama is forced to marry her himself. Such a pain," Shikamaru yawned.

"That sounds... unfortunate," Gaara remarked. The Fire Daimyo's daughter was notoriously spoiled and bratty. Not to mention, she was only fourteen.

"Yeah, Kakashi-sensei asked me to stand in for him. Not that it mattered, I was going to be here anyway." Naruto grinned.

"Speaking of which, that is because Sasuke-san had something to announce to all of us, correct?" Chōjūrō questioned.

Sasuke nodded, "Naruto, hear me out. Remember back when we sealed Kaguya together, and that talk about forming a White Zetsu army for war... despite not needing to go to that extent? It had been bothering me this whole time so I took the liberty of doing my own research about it."

Naruto perked up.

Sasuke continued, "What I found was that the army was formed even earlier than we thought it was."

"What are you saying?" Darui spoke up.

Sasuke closed his eyes. "This is only a hypothesis but, I have proof that points to this direction. It's possible that something far more dreadful than Kaguya has appeared in this area."

Sakura gasped in alarm, "So you're saying something similar to Kaguya is still around us?"

Sasuke looked at her. "It isn't unthinkable in the least."

"How are we supposed to explain something like this to the people who haven't even recovered from the previous war?!" Chōjūrō demanded. "And an enemy like that to top it off..."

"Well, it's only a hypothesis, so there's no need to cause unrest among the people," Kurotsuchi reassured. "Let's keep this a secret among the five of us for the time being."

"Good idea," Gaara agreed.

Naruto let out a breath, "Sasuke, I'll go with—"

"You stay in the village and protect it, as future Hokage. I'm the only one who can track Kaguya's traces with my Sharingan anyway. You deal with the things you have to do, and I'll do what I have to do. Isn't this the 'cooperation' you wanted?"

"..."

"Please, keep my movements a secret from everyone except those here. Make this a top-secret mission, if you will," Sasuke addressed the group. "A bright future is always better... don't you think?"

* * *

Once again, Sakura found herself at the gates of Konoha. This time with both Naruto and Kakashi. Once again, she was seeing Sasuke off with a heavy heart.

Except this time, she was sure of Sasuke's feelings as well as her own. Sasuke was leaving the village as Sakura Haruno's husband. Or should she say, Sakura Uchiha's husband?

The previous day, right after the Five Kage Summit, Sasuke had asked her to marry him. It wasn't a grand affair; he didn't propose on one knee with an extravagant ring like Sakura dreamed of when she was twelve. He had expressed his wish for their child to grow up with the Uchiha name. To never forget who his or her father was. To always remember his or her heritage and the legacy he or she would carry. Sakura agreed. And that very morning, the pair went to the city hall to obtain a marriage certificate with Naruto and Hinata as their witnesses.

Sakura Uchiha. Sakura Uchiha. Sakura Uchiha. Mrs. Uchiha.

Sakura flushed. She didn't know if she would ever get used to this.

She gazed longingly at Sasuke's retreating back. It was obvious Sakura wanted a hug or kiss goodbye, but other people were present. It was just like him to strictly save physical displays of affection for private.

But he did poke her head once more. Sakura laughed a little. That was such a Sasuke thing to do.

* * *

 _Six Months Later_

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" Hinata let loose a bloodcurdling shriek as sweat drenched her whole body, soaking her comfortable dress.

"AAAAAAAAHHHH!" Naruto also yelled, but only because Hinata's grip on his hand became even tighter than he thought was humanely possible. His hand had gone purple.

"Alright Hinata, one more big push and it'll be over! Come on, you can do it!" Sakura urged the sobbing woman.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" She cried.

Then, "WAAAAHH! WAAAAHH! WAAAH!" The wails of a newborn infant filled the hospital room. Sakura held the baby in her arms and quickly followed protocol, ensuring that everything was healthy and proper and proceeded to cut the umbilical cord. Finally, she wrapped the baby snug in a blanket and held him to his mother, who lovingly cradled him in her arms.

"Congratulations! A very healthy baby boy!"

"He's, he's beautiful!" Hinata sobbed through teary eyes, exhausted from eight hours of labor. Naruto peered over her shoulder in awe.

"... Wow," he breathed in amazement. The infant quieted and opened his eyes, staring back at his parents.

"His eyes... they're so blue," Hinata breathed. So he hadn't inherited her clan's bloodline. She didn't care though, she loved her son just the way he was.

"Do you have a name for him?" Ino questioned, interrupting the Uzumaki family moment as the original Konoha Twelve filed into the room.

"Pig! Timing!" Sakura reprimanded.

"What? I'm just wondering!"

"Man look at the lil' guy, looks like a tough nut," Kiba grinned.

"Maybe I shall be the one to teach him in his academy years," Shino suggested.

"Maybe..." Hinata absentmindedly said as she continued to coo and stare with glassy eyes at her baby.

"But really though, I'm with Ino. What's his name?" Tenten spoke up.

"Boruto," Hinata softly uttered.

"BORUTO! THAT IS A MOST... interesting name... I am unsure if it is a youthful name or not," Lee admitted, confused.

Hinata smiled, "He is named after both his late Uncle Neji and his late grandfather Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage. Like a bolt, he will keep Konoha in place as it is; we hope he will cherish the village just as much as his father does, if not more. Like a lightning bolt, he will be fast and mighty."

"I RECANT MY PREVIOUS STATEMENT! THAT IS A MOST YOUTHFUL NAME, THAT IT IS!" Lee proclaimed, and ran out of the room crying into the sleeve of his arm. Everybody cringed at Lee's typical antics.

"Man I can't believe that bastard didn't come even though I told him to," Naruto voiced, disappointed.

The door to the hospital room knocked twice and a nondescript nurse poked her head into the room.

"Um, Uzumaki-sama, someone dropped this off at the front desk for you just a few minutes ago. The nurse handed Naruto a small envelope. He opened it and a little necklace in the shape of a shiny silver bolt slipped out. Out with it came a small card that said, _Congratulations_.

"Wait, miss, did you see the person's face?" Naruto asked the nurse. She shook her head.

"No, he was in a cloak and the hood covered his face. I was creeped out if I say so myself."

"But I didn't tell anyone of Boruto's name. Except one person... wait don't tell me it's—!"

"—Sasuke-kun!" Sakura exclaimed and she herself bolted out of the room.

Sprinting down the hall as fast as she could with a pregnant belly, Sakura jammed the elevator button about ten times before the button cracked. After what seemed like an eternity, the doors finally opened and she repeatedly pressed the first floor button.

 _Please still be here, please still be here, please still be here!_

When the doors finally opened, Sakura sprinted out of the lobby outside. The sun was shining and the weather was nice, but Sakura only cared about the man who was standing right where she was not a few moments ago.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto tumbled out of the hospital right beside her. He took the stairs. Slightly out of breath, he exclaimed, "I just felt Sasuke's chakra signature leave the village!"

"What?! I'm going after him!"

"But Sakura-chan, your baby!"

"I've had it, I want him to be there when our child is born and he _will_ be there when our child is born!"

"I think you need to calm down."

"Me?! Calm down?! I AM calm!"

"I beg to differ," Naruto muttered.

"Excuse me?!"

"I said, 'of course you are, Sakura-chan!' But... if you're serious about chasing after Sasuke, then you're going to need a really good sensor with you," Naruto reasoned, "and since I really can't leave Hinata's side right now, I propose you take Karin with you."

"Say _what_."

Sakura didn't question Karin's abilities. She just wasn't on good terms with the woman. Sakura felt like no matter how friendly she tried to be towards Karin, the other woman just didn't reciprocate amicably. She had the suspicion it probably had something to do with Sasuke no longer being required to be with Karin as a teammate anymore.

"I'm just saying, because she's in the village right now, and she's the only sensor good enough to track Sasuke down as quickly as possible. Don't worry about telling Kakashi-sensei, I'll just tell him you've finally lost it."

"... Alright. Damn it, Naruto, did I ever tell you how I hate it when you're right?"

"All the time, Sakura-chan!"

* * *

Sasuke stopped in in his tracks when he felt two very familiar chakra signatures enter his sensing range. After receiving a message by a messenger hawk about a week ago from Naruto saying that Hinata would be due any day now, he thought he could return to the village, drop off his gift, and leave quietly while suppressing his chakra. But he underestimated Naruto's sennin abilities.

Sakura was coming for him. Karin was with her. He supposed the only person besides Naruto who would be able to track him down was Karin, which was why she was with Sakura in the first place. But why was Sakura so keen on finding him?

He wanted to test how serious she was in coming after him, so he leapt forward, starting to run away from the pair of girls.

The chakra signatures spiked in alarm as they noticed he was fleeing from them.

He let them chase after him for a few hours through the Land of Fire, before he deemed that Sakura really intended to not let him go.

Abruptly stopping in the middle of a clearing in a forest, he turned around and waited for them to catch up. He assumed they were slower than usual because Sakura had to carry the weight of their child with her.

When Sakura stopped before him, she was out of breath, sweating, and looked ready to collapse. He started forward, intending to catch her in his arm. Instead, she grabbed him by his collar and jerked him down to her height.

"Are you trying to kill this baby?!"

"Sakura. Why are you—"

"Because I've had it with your lone wolf tendencies! There are only a couple months left before I push out a human baby from my body, and I am going to travel with you until this child is born, whether you like it or not! You _will_ be there as this baby's father, so I am not leaving your side until I give birth, understand? And just, my hormones are going _crazy_ but I swear to god Sasuke, if you make me go through this alone, I won't forgive you! And—"

"Come with me," Sasuke interrupted.

"I will _not_ be going back to Konoha right now!"

"I said, come with me."

"Of course I'm coming with you! ... Oh, I'm coming with you?"

"That's what you want, isn't it?"

"Well, yes, but I, I just thought you would but up more of a fight."

Sasuke raised his brow. "Would you rather me tell you to go back to Konoha right now?"

"N-no! No. Thank you, Sasuke-kun. I... missed you."

The corner of Sasuke's lip lifted.

"Excuse me, I'm still here y'know," Karin huffed.

"Right, thank you for helping me find Sasuke, Karin," Sakura smiled. She had learned that Karin had a good heart after all, under a cold pretense. They had bonded just a little, a heart-to-heart as women, as Sakura saw the genuine concern Karin possessed when Sakura was about to collapse from exhaustion due to overexertion from running around while pregnant.

"Hmph. Well it seems as if I'm not needed here anymore. Goodbye, I guess." Karin turned around to leave, but Sakura stopped her.

"If you would like to travel with us, you are more than welcome to! I'm very thankful that you helped me," Sakura called.

Karin waved a hand as she retreated, "Nah, I'll pass on the third-wheeling. But if you need anything else, I'll be at Orochimaru's old hideout doing some research. Sasuke knows which one I'm talking about."

* * *

 _Two Months Later_

After traveling with Sasuke, Sakura's eyes opened up to the world. She discovered and learned about so many new things, new medicines, new plants, new peoples, new foods, new cultures, new religions, and much more. She got to spend a lot of time with not only her traveling companion, but her husband. It seemed as if these past two months all but flew by as she learned something new every single day, all with her husband at her side.

There was one particular moment that stood out to her, an encounter between a merchant from the far west, even further west than the Land of Wind. This merchant had stumbled into what he said were uncharted lands and territory and was keen on learning about shinobi. He told her and Sasuke of the gods and goddesses his people worshipped. She loved listening to these tales, whether she believed in them or not. She recalled, Brahma is the god of creation. Vishnu, the god of preservation. Shiva, the god of protection and destruction. When the merchant had first laid his eyes on Sakura, he mentioned how the goddess of fertility Parvati had gifted her with the child she carried. He also drew parallels between her as Parvati and Sasuke as Shiva, as Parvati was also known as the goddess of love and devotion and the two were husband and wife. Sakura happily listened to the stories of this foreign man's religion and would never forget one particular goddess he mentioned: Saraswati Devi, also known as Sarada, the goddess of wisdom and learning, art and music.

Which brought her to her current situation at hand.

Sakura had gone into labor, coincidentally when she and Sasuke were near the hideout that Karin was residing in. They had quickly sought her help and enlisted her to bring Sasuke and Sakura's child into the world.

Sakura had given birth without any complications to an absolutely gorgeous baby girl.

This little one had Sasuke's coloring, but Sakura's shapes and features. However, when Sakura quickly performed health checks on her newborn girl, she had found the infant had a little trouble seeing; she was nearsighted. Karin had offered her an old pair of her glasses as a gift. Sakura gratefully accepted them as a token of truce between the two. She would give them to her daughter when she could fit into them.

"Sarada," Sakura declared while Sasuke was uncomfortably caressing his daughter in one arm. The baby girl was finally sleeping peacefully after having wailed for her first hour of life on Earth. He and Karin looked to her in confusion.

"Her name. Her name is Sarada," Sakura repeated. Sasuke, recognizing the origin of the name, let out a small smile. A good choice, he thought.

"Ah."

Karin, still confused, shrugged. But no matter, no need to care for semantics when she had Sarada's umbilical cord in her possession that she could possibly use for future research!

After recovering for about two weeks in Orochimaru's old hideout, Sakura and Sasuke mutually decided it was best for Sakura to return to Konoha in order to raise their daughter properly.

She returned and was warmly welcomed back by family and friends, and thus propelled her and Sasuke into a new chapter in their lives.

All was well.

For now.

 _Fin._

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

Omg. After stopping and coming back to this chapter so many times, this story is finally done. Did you like all of my references to Naruto Gaiden: The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring? By the way, this was written before Sasuke Shinden: Book of Sunrise was translated so I have no idea where Sasuke Shinden would fit into this story :/

Maybe I'll come back in the future to revise this whole story.

Thanks for sticking with me!

Look out for a new story sometime in the future! Like I said, my next story will focus on quality of the writing and the content of the chapter, rather than length.


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